Exclama Et canes bellum libera!
by samurai89
Summary: "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" In this universe the Mars cache never existed. Humanity followed a different course in it's history. That is, until a unknown object was discovered on the fringes of Human controlled space. Very AU. Please review
1. Prolouge

The year was 2257 BCE and Humanity was the only great space-faring power within it's system, having yet not made any contact with other extraterrestrial lifeforms. Humanity however was not united. Each of the great nations of Earth, China, America, Japan, Russia and others could not or would not form a united Earth government and decided to pursue their own interests. However in matters of great importance they agreed to form a Coalition to tackle the issue.

In 2041 China faced even greater population problems than ever before and famine and instability was growing. The government put it's faith into the New Nanking orbital space station. Designed to hold half a million people without resources from Earth for long periods of time. Other nations who could soon followed.

Sixty years later Humanity's desire to expand grew and the first space faring ships were built by America with help from scientists and engineers around the world. Affectionately called USS Enterprise it held the first Hyperdrive engine and could reach speeds one third the speed of light. It's purpose was to ferry colonists to Mars where "living domes" were constructed a few years earlier to make the surface habitable. Some other nations also staked their claim on Mars and colonised it in the following years.

By 2130 Earth had a population of 13 Billion people, innovations in farming "cities" and other technologies allowing this sustained growth. Mars had a population of 5 Billion in the large Domed Cities. The OSS's provided for 3 Billion people and each station could now support itself for indefinite periods thanks to advances in technology, allowing the Stations to produce it's own resources from the mines of the mineral rich asteroid belts.

During this time of great inventions Japan produced the first MCA, Mobile Combat Armour or "Gundam's" to Americans because of the many similarities between the machines and the classic anime program. The first generation of MCA's, the Toyotomi, performed spectacularly. Being able to be used in construction and replacing the Main Battle Tanks of Japan. Like with all other ground breaking inventions other nations soon followed. America produced the ground and air capable Washingtons, Russia with the Tsar fortresses and other nations with their own variations of the MCA.

Meanwhile numerous OSS, Orbital Space Stations, had been constructed around Mars, housing Humanity's ever growing population.

2180 marked a enormous change in Humanity's history. The OSS Elizabeth and it's neighbour New Beijing were taken over by separatist rebels who were aided with popular support. Some OSS's desired greater freedom away from their national government, this sparked fear in Earth and some tried to tighten control over the stations, this was the begging of the rift between the Earth born and Station born humans.

A Coalition strike force was sent to the stations. The Elizabethians fought on for a year while the citizens of the New Beijing resisted for two until a peace treaty was finally agreed upon. New Beijing would become independent of China and the Elizabeth would become a protectorate of England.

This war, which would become known as the 1st Station war, was a pivotal point in history for humanity. This was because it allowed the military of the Coalition nations to asses their new war machines and experiment with new methods of war. Cyberwarfare took great prominence and advancements in this field gave birth to full functioning AI's. These would soon be available for commercial civilian use.

The first space ship battle occurred during the start of the war and with military planners having only simulated training in this field it was a valuable experience gain. New tactics and strategies were learned and the ship-to-ship battles allowed engineers to asses the performance of the ships. New specialised and hybrid ships and other types of ships were designed, redesigned and produced using input from the ship crews.

On the ground soldiers had the chance to really put themselves and their equipment to the test. Electric firing systems were available fifty years before but this was the first time it was really tested in battle and it shined. The firing system was very versatile and could be used in many situations. PCA's, Personal Combat Armour developed throughout the years was also tested and shielding technology, which was in it's infancy, would be developed further.

The result was the same for MCA's and other combat machines. MCA Ace's were great propaganda objects and many companies and organisations who produced them were eager to bring these Ace's into their image. This spawned the individualised MCA's and soon competitions would be held between MCA pilots who were sponsored by their chosen companies.

However, all this experience came at great cost. It was estimated that the Coalition forces lost sixty thousand soldiers, the station forces and civilians up to seventy thousand. Two hundred Coalition ships and a similar number of Station forces were lost. MCA losses from both sides numbered at least twenty thousand or more. The money used for this operation was staggering and this was only considering the logistical supplies like food and ammunition.

By 2200 there had been a total of five Station Wars and humanity gained and lost on each one. All the OSS's had officially declared their independence and formed the Coalition of Independent Space Stations, or CISS. During the Station wars Domed Cities in Mars, sensing the opportunity to achieve the same goals as the OSS's, began rallying and petitioning for their independence from their home nation. Some nations of Earth, embroidered in the Station Wars, just granted the cities their independence peacefully while others tried to negotiate. When the negotiations failed the nations who did not want to relinquish control of their piece of Mars formed the Mars Task Force. It consisted of China, Russia, Japan, Germany and France. Russia regained their cities at great cost and Japan managed to get a treaty for their Domes to effectively become independent client states. The others, already faced with the Station War, could not fight with enough commitment to regain their Domes.

After the conclusion of the Dome Wars the independent Domes declared their freedom and formed the UCM, the United Cities of Mars.

2220 was the year that stability was restored to the Sol system and five years later expansion from all factions; the nations of Earth, CISS and the UCM took place. Most sent observers to look for habitable planets and large Colony Ships were sent when they were found. The only exception was the CISS, who built OSS's around suitable planets.

The 2240 Census revealed the estimated total population of Humanity :

Earth: 18 Billion

Colonies originating from Earth (does not include Mars or the OSS): 4 Billion in eight planets

Mars:10 Billion

Colonies originating from Mars: 2 Billion in three planets

All Orbital Space Stations: 15 Billion in five planets not including Mars or Earth.

By 2250 the CISS developed technology to allow the OSS's to move from planet to planet. All OSS around Earth moved to other CISS controlled planets, some moved from Mars while others stayed, having made good relations with the UCM. This gave the CISS government a more centralised force instead of scattered stations. Trade boomed between all factions and peace settled in.

The Year is now 2257 and this year human history is about to be changed once again, for on the fringes of Human controlled space, a unknown object had been found. Human scientists would call this a great discovery, proof of other sentient life apart from them, other races in the Galaxy called it the Mass Relay.

* * *

First story in a while, please review and tell me of your opinion in great detail...please.


	2. Discovery

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:****:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**OSS Roman in orbit around the UCM planet Shanxi**_

The OSS Roman was a third generation station, not as old as New Nanking but not as new as the fifth generation stations. It had started service around Mars and some it's inhabitants were veterans of the fifth Station War. Some inconsequential scars were left unrepaired on the station as memorials of sorts. It had a long centre core. Connected to it were a total of seventy habitation "rings", some were for residential purposes, others for commercial, some for production of both food and material and the ones at the middle were strictly military. It held a estimated population of 1.5 million and was one of the largest OSS ever built. It also housed a total on thirty AI's to help operate the enormous station.

Like most stations it had powerful defences; long range ion guns, mass accelerated projectile artillery, numerous rail guns, point defence lasers and strong shielding. There were also it's seventy active main battleships and two carriers, supplemented by fifty light battleships.

The main battleships were the fourth generation produced by Araike Corp, optimised for long range ship-to-ship combat. It was one thousand metres in length, armed with two main ion canons, two twin rail canons and numerous point defence lasers. It also had ten Thor nuclear warheads, forty Longbow missiles and one EMP missile. It was shielded by an upgraded Aegis third generation shield, able to take on projectile weaponry but more effective against energy weapons. The ship AI was also capable of cyberwarfare up to a optimal range of one thousand two hundred metres.

The light battleships were also produced by Araike Corp. They were fourth generation, five hundred metres long. Not capable of much by themselves but in "wolf packs" they were devastating. They were highly mobile, screening the advance of the larger main battleships and carrying out hunts on one ship at a time. Armed with one short ion cannon and two twin rail canons they were ideally suited for close ship fighting. Each ship had one Thor nuclear warhead and twenty Longbow missiles. The ships were shielded by standard Aegis third generation shields. The AI's were optimized to conduct cyber attacks at a range of one thousand metres

The Carries were built by Titan Munitions and they were behemoths of battle. They were two thousand metres in length and protected by upgraded fourth generation Aegis shielding systems. Armed with only one long range ion canon and thousands of point defence lasers it's real offensive capability came from the one thousand three hundred MCA's of varying types aboard, all capable of space combat. The AI's on Carriers were mostly for maintaining the ship since the Carriers did not usually go on the front lines.

OSS Roman was a military station with all of it's citizens receiving compulsory five year military training from the age of fifteen. It's main production was arms and armour, mainly energy based. It was not tremendously rich but it was decent. Each OSS had it's own type of government, Roman being a militaristic station had a Lord General and Lord Admiral in joint rule.

Currently, Lord General Lukas Alexander, or Luke, was relaxing in his modestly furnished home reading the popular sci-fi holonovel "First Contact". He was interrupted however by the sound of two very recognisable voices. Two very loud voices.

Looking over his shoulder he could see his children Marcus and Cathrina. Marcus was well built with short spiky brown hair and was an average, for the inhabitants of Roman, six foot in height. He was wearing a plain white shirt and the standard issue red trouser. Cathrina had chin length hair dyed a bright red an she was dressed in her white pilot jumpsuit with fifteen little stars on her right chest , representing the number of kills she made in her MCA. She was as tall as her brother. For footwear both wore standard issue black boots.

"Oh go to hell you bitch!" Marcus Alexander yelled to his sister three years his senior.

He received a cracking left hook straight to his cheek but the eighteen year old recovered and delivered his own blow to his sisters face.

Cathrina felt her cheekbone crack as Marcus smacked her in the right spot. The woman however just pressed her own attack, her fist and feet, powered by strong, muscled arms and legs met her brothers blow for blow. However she was more experienced, having clocked more time in the sparing ring and simulators. She grabbed her brothers arm when he struck and put a well placed blow to his chest, winding him. Not yet done she kicked his legs from under him and rained blows on his face when he was on the ground, Marcus doing his best to cover himself could not fight back.

A loud tapping was heard and Cathrina paused her beating to look up at her father who was tapping a officers cane on the wall. He was dressed in standard issue red trousers and a white shirt. The forty nine year old had short cropped hair like most men in Roman. He was a strong looking man, muscled arms and chest and at least six foot three.

"Well, hello" Luke said to his children. He was evidently not bothered about the situation, as if it was a normal daily occurrence.

Marcus got up off the floor and glared at his sister while rubbing at aches on his face. "Hey dad"

Cathrina was a bit more formal, giving a salute and a "Sir".

Luke raised a single eyebrow "Why are you here?"

"Aww dad aren't you happy to see your children?"

"No" Was the immediate reply "I stopped loving you when you were fifteen remember?" Before Marcus could reply Luke pressed on "Now, what are you two doing here? I thought you had training or some other menial task to do?"

Cathrina got straight to the point "Lord Admiral Alexis wanted to see you, it's about the unknown object, apparently the science and engineering team made a breakthrough"

Luke groaned, not at all happy his day off was ruined. "Fine, hang on a second" Grabbing his white and red army coat and cap, bearing the three sword insignia marking his rank as a general he led the two towards the military headquarters. They passed through the residential area and used the grav lift to head to the military sector.

"Dad why couldn't we just use the emergency lift in your house?" Marcus moaned.

"Because it was for _emergencies, _now stop moaning you remind me of your mother in bed"

Marcus was horrified and dry heaved along the way while Cathrina tried to purge any thoughts that came to mind. As they exited the grav lift a flurry of activity washed over them, apparently the Army was conducting drills as they saw bustling soldiers marching and performing exercises. They also saw their new "toys".

The new line of Infantry Assist Vehicles designed by Omar Armoury were just fresh out of production, the schematics being purchased from another OSS. They were long vehicles, resembling the classic Earth half tracks. The top quality armour, produced by Camelot Industries, was streamline and angled. It could deflect projectile rounds and could absorb a large amount of direct energy fire. It moved using thrusters and anti gravity, capable of going one hundred miles an hour, one hundred and fifty if kicked into overdrive. It's main armament was the dual barrelled Hadron Energy Canon which used solar power to charge up energy and fire. Due to this the fire rate was fifteen seconds between each shot but the shot was powerful, able to knock out most heavily armoured targets up to a kilometre away with one shot. The crews gave it the nickname "Sun Gun" when they saw the testing of the weapon. It was also capable of holding and transporting ten soldiers or could be used as a medevac vehicle or other purposes.

Marcus let out a low whistle, they looked _nice_ "What they called?"

"Helios IAV's. Classed as medium IAV's but it has great firepower and top of the line armour. Good speed as well"

"Oh yay Army gets new toys" Cathrina cut it, her tone of voice indicating she was less than pleased. "We have money for this but the Naval Air force has to work with scraps?"

Marcus snorted "You call a fourth gen MCA scrap? No wonder you dont get laid, your standards are through the roof!"

Before the two could start another fist-fight Luke dragged them towards the HQ building. Once inside they went to the conference room they were met by senior navy and army staff, along with the Lord Admiral.

Lord Admiral Alexis Josephine Heather was approaching her fifties but thanks to advances in medical science, and lots and lots of vanity, she looked twenty years younger. Black hair tied in a high pony-tail, six feet and three inches tall and an ever frightening look on her face made sure she was the centre of attention. The fact that she was an experienced MCA pilot and a battleship captain made her well respected.

Alexis smiled slightly at the sight of the three and let them get settled down with the others. Taking her officer cane she tapped the end on the table, officially beginning the meeting. The holographic screen behind her activated to show the unknown object, it had two long prongs at one end and a long block at the other and two rings in the middle that most assumed would spin if the thing was turned on. It was also very large, dwarfing even the carriers.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is the recent discovery our allies at Shanxi found. It is estimated to be about seven thousand metres long and six hundred metres high, though it's purposes are still quite unclear. As is it's origin. However our scientists working along with our UCM allies believe they have managed to find a way to turn the thing on"

The screen changed to show a man wearing the distinct white armour with red stripes of the Roman OSS. He was tall and had short cropped hair along with a small stubble. He saluted before speaking " Sir's, Madam's"

"Tell us what you found"

"Well I think this is some sort of large scale mass accelerator able to send objects thousands of light years away, faster than even the best hyperdrive engines. I assume whoever built this thing used it as a method of transport. After um..messing around for lack of a better phrase I think we found out a way to activate the thing"

"Is it safe?" General Arnold Davidson was apprehensive about the object, reading the reports on how much power it was needed to operate that thing. He feared some sort of malfunction or one of the scientists pressed the wrong button.

"We are taking all precaution sir, were using a robot to... 'flip the switch' while we're a good distance away on the Alexander. It's as safe as can be"

The general nodded "Very well"

Alexis turned to her co-leader, with a nod of his head he gave the go. "Very well Dr, activate the machine now"

Dr Bartley was tense and a little bit nervous, this was after all being broadcasted across the entire Sol system. He turned to his head engineer and gave the order "Activate it"

The engineer controlled the robot to start the chain reaction and what they saw amazed them all. The centre exploded in a bright blue light and after the light cleared they could see the rings rotating around a giant orb of unknown matter and the entire machine was lit up in a brilliant display. Gasps of amazement were plenty.

Dr Bartley felt all tightness leave him and he could have collapse out of sheer releif right there and then. The Captain, Amelia, patted the man on the shoulder and soon the clapping started.

Marcus leant over to his sister "That was cool"

Cathrina simply nodded, too enthralled by the object.

–

–

The next morning the media was still swarming over the event, marking it as a marvel of technology and other such things. Dr Bartley and his team had been swamped by camera drones and reporters when they returned leaving them very little time to rest. The station buzzing with activity with many people coming in to watch with their own eyes .

Lord Admiral Alexis awoke from her sleep and found that she had been sleeping on the couch in her office, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes she saw Cathrina on her desk watching holovideos of MCA's in combat.

Yawning and stretching she made her way over to the pilot. "Why are you here?"

Cathrina looked at the Lord Admiral. While growing up she considered the Lord Admiral her hero, a great MCA ace and a fantastic captain. Cathrina had to admit she worshipped the woman. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she'd ever be good friends with her or that the Lord Admiral would admit she was like her own daughter. Smiling she closed the holoprojector and let the Lord Admiral sit in her very comfortable seat.

"Dad asked me to look after you, no one wanted to disturb you after a long night of diverting reporters and talking to other important leaders" She walked over to the authentic coffee machine Alexis bought and started to make some brew to wake the woman up.

"Thank you, that's very kind of you"

Cathrina handed the woman a mug of hot black coffee, she herself having her third latte. Taking the drink she took a grateful sip and felt the hot beverage work it's way down her throat, leaving a strong taste in her mouth.

"So, whats the plan for today ma'am?"

Alexis made a face "Dont call me that, you know it makes me feel old"

Cathrina laughed "You are so vain, you know some would approach ageing with dignity. Besides, you've got about another eighty years anyway"

"Oh girl I do not approach age with dignity, I run the other way screaming. You'll be the same one day mark my words"

Cathrina pulled up a chair and leant her head on the Lord Admiral's shoulder, laughing all the way. Both looked up to see Luke enter and give a brief salute. Both responded the same way, though Cathrina had not moved.

"Good your up, get dressed and put on your best, we're taking a closer look at the thing" His message delivered he left to get himself fixed up.

Alexis gave a grunt, it was going to be a long day.

–

–

_**Relay 314**_

Captain Turus, commander of the cruiser Nazario, flagship of the twelfth scout group, fifteenth fleet, was relieved. His patrol of ten ships, all cruisers, had discovered that a previously inactive relay was now active. The real problem however was that this was a primary relay, one heading into uncharted space and council policy was clear on this. There was to be no activation of primary relays, the punishment for this was severe. This gave Turus a chance to let out some steam from monotonous patrol duty, after all he had already come up with suspects for this. It was most likeley some foolish pirates that wanted to venture into uncharted space and map it out to use as a base of operations and get resources.

The thought of another civilisation activating the relay from the other side barely registered to him, what were the chances that an unknown space-faring race existed this close to Council space? And if they did exist they would most likely not figure out how to work the Mass Relay anyway.

Turus turned to his helmsman "Alert the main fleet that we're pursuing pirates into uncharted space through relay 314"

The helmsman nodded and the patrol group entered the relay, vanishing in minutes.

* * *

Thank you for reading and please review and in as great a detail as you can. If you have any questions or issues please review about the former but dont expect me to do anything about the latter...Im joking, just review. Please.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:****:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.


	3. First Contact

AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**OSS Roman Light Battleship, Happy Time**_

Captain Joseph Ruthford or "Jokey" as he was known to his crew yawned for the umpteenth time that day. Last he checked it was about one o' clock universal time, or UT, normally in a ordinary situation he would be asleep while his XO took the reigns and then he would wake up at two and have his XO yell at him and remind him of his duties. This was not a normal situation.

His ship was the lead ship of his "wolf pack", a five ship strong hunting group all made up of Light Battleships. The others were; Unrated, Buzzy, Sunny and Pebble. Light Battleship captains, like him, tended to be young at an average age of twenty five to thirty five. This meant that ship names tended to be...silly, most of the time. They were here to cordon off the "Astral Gate" as it had come to be called. Mostly it was telling over curious civilian ships to back off.

This was all about to change however.

Helmsman Eric Garth was startled by a large beeping on his holographic console. "Captain the Gate's energy signature has surged!"

Immediately Joe went to his 'Captain' mode. Getting up off his seat he looked down at his helmsman "What's happening?"

Eric tapped a few controls before replying with a "I don't know sir, the energy just spiked up"

Joe turned to his XO Kate "Put the ship on alerted standby and get everyone to their stations"

The woman nodded before relaying the order on her console.

"Sir! Look!"

Joe faced the holoscreen showing the Gate and was shocked to see..._things _suddenly appear by the large machine. "What are they?"

"The sensors show they are some kind of ship sir, but not built by anyone we've encountered before. There are no logs in the database on that kind of ship"

"Scan it, see what you can find"

The combat officer on duty typed in a few commands and a readout appeared "They are about seven hundred and fifty metres long, their armour is a mixture of some recognisable materials and some unknown. They appear to have some sort of projectile weaponry, mass accelerators I think, and some type of shielding. They seem to have a different kind of drive core-Incoming! Their firing!" Acting on instinct he raised the shields, just in time to block several projectiles shot by the unknown and now hostile ships.

"Shields are holding at ninety three percent, orders sir?" Eric's heart was beating, this was his first true combat experience away from simulations.

"Get us in range for the ion canon and tear them up one by one, braodcast the order to the pack as well. Stay calm boys and girls and remember your training, we'll pull through this"

With their captains reassurance the crew calmed their nerves and prepared for battle. The thrusters engaged and the pack advanced on the enemy ships. The alien ships however kept on firing at their individual targets, bringing the shields lower and lower with each hit.

Once in range the wolf pack opened fire with their ion canons first and were elated when the white beams apparently pierce the enemy shields and cut through the targeted vessel, pierced with five very large hull breaches the ship exploded. In response the enemy started manoeuvring but one was too late to evade a shot that pierced through it's tail end and engines and exploded a few seconds later.

"Shields are at seventy percent, Unrated and Buzzy have sixty five, Sunny eighty and Pebble forty five." The comms officer shouted.

"Have Sunny and Buzzy cover Pebble and have Unrated be our wingman" Joe was taking in slow, steady breaths. His whole body was shaking in a mix of fear and excitement, his heart was thundering and his brows were beginning to sweat.

Happy Time and Unrated partnered up and swooped after an enemy ship, blasting it with their rail guns. The enemy shields seemed to be able to take the projectile rounds very well, even under constant bombardment. The Pebble had Sunny and Buzzy covering it's flanks and they were after two ships. The other five ships who were left unpestered lined their weapons up on the light battleships and opened fire with their projectile weapons.

"Shields at sixty five and going down, Unrated has fifty, Buzzy fifty five, Sunny seventy and Pebble thirty five"

"Happy, scatter those bastards so they dont get a shot off!"

The holographic projection of Happy, the Ships AI, appeared life size by Joe. She looked like a stereotypical fifteen year old schoolgirl, pig tails, skirt and shirt uniform and black shoes. "O-Kay! Firing Longbow missiles! Want me to tell the others to board their ships?" She also had a highly energetic voice and was always constantly peppy.

Joe nodded "Shut them down and kill their crews but leave the crew of one of the vessels, we need prisoners after all"

gave a bright smile and a thumbs up before disappearing. Happy Time's missile pods opened up and twenty missiles climbed vertically before moving straight at their targets, however the enemy seemed to have a point defence system since only five missiles made it to their targets and they only damaged the shields.

However three of the ships suddenly stopped firing and all the lights within went out, as did the engine. One ship stopped for a moment before exploding from within and the other just stopped firing and it's engines cut out.

The enemy ship being pursued by Happy Time and Unrated seemed to finally have enough as it's shields gave out and the rounds hit the armour. Unrated lined up a shot and fired it's ion cannon, destroying the engines and causing half the ship to explode. The two ships being chased by Pebble, Sunny and Buzzy tried to make a run for the Gate but two Ion canon shots destroyed one and the combined rail guns of the three ships overwhelmed the final operating enemy ship.

Joe gave a long, relieved sigh and melted back on his seat. "Casualty report"

It was Kate that spoke, slightly startling the Captain by her sudden appearance to his side. She was looking at a small holoscreen in front of her eyes, being projected by her slim headset. "No deaths and some minor scrapes when some crewmen fell over. Congratulations Captain, even if you are incredibly lazy you do show you earned your rank"

The bridge crew snickered or laughed lightly, Joe himself grateful for the humour after the very tense battle.

–

–

"Report Captain, what happened?" Alexis asked the holoscreen that connected the command staff to Captain Joseph.

"Sir's, Madam's, at about thirteen hundred universal time the Astral Gate emitted an energy spike and a few seconds later ten unknown ships appeared by the Gate. After a preliminary scan they opened fire without provocation so I gave the order to engage , we suffered no losses and have managed to capture four ships intact with the crew of one still alive, the other being suffocated when the AI's vented the atmosphere. The other six were destroyed"

Alexis nodded "Good job Captain, send me the detailed reports of your scans and what ever else you found about these unknown hostiles"

The Captain saluted before the holoscreen cut out. Immediately the commands staff broke into murmured conversations about this new predicament. Lord Admiral Alexis tapped her cane on the table to call their attention.

"It appears ladies and gentlemen we have made contact with hostile aliens, for all we know those could just have been a scouting force so I am, with consent from the Lord General, announcing an alerted standby throughout the station. I am also alerting our allies at Shanxi and have them put their forces at standby"

One of the Admirals raised her hand and Alexis nodded for her to speak "What about the media ma'am? A lot of camera's were watching the entire time"

It was Luke who answered her "We will be announcing that any non OSS personnel or citizens must leave the station or be detained"

"We will also be assembling fleet one and two to cordon off the area and have fleet three on reserve. Im also alerting any other nearby OSS's of potential hostile invasion"

"They will probably think we're overreacting" One of the generals remarked.

"Be that as it may it pays to be cautious, those hostiles may return and in greater numbers. You are all dismissed, attend to your duties and get your soldiers up and alert"

With the final tapping of the cane the three admirals and three generals left the room, only Lord General Lukas remained.

"Come on, the scientists and engineers are eager to show us what those unknowns are" Taking his cane and cap Luke followed Alexis to one of the grav lifts heading for the docking bays where the alien ships and one crew were under heavy guard.

–

–

The needle was forced through the metallic skin as Dr Haley tried to collect from blood samples from one of the dead 'aliens'. She was ecstatic that she would be the first one to open up one of these things, as a scientist she was always wondering if there would ever be other life-forms out there and here they were right on her operating table. These things were as large as most typical people from the OSS Roman, at an average of six foot. Their face held avian features with a sort of wide beak as a mouth. The face plating extended over the head and jut out in horns at the back. They were bipedal with two long arms ending in two long, taloned, fingers and thumbs.

They had to use extra strength needles to pierce the skin after their first tries had bent the smaller ones. Extracting the blood she was positively giddy when it turned out to be blue. Pulling the syringe back she gave it to one of her aide's "Have it examined".

Now using a very strong and sharp scalpel she tried to cut apart the coloured face plate, first starting with the chin plates and working her way all across the face, cutting off bits and pieces until all that remained were the flesh and small, bird like eyes. The carefully placed pieces were put on a tray and sent off to be examined in a laboratory.

The face was not bleeding much, having already gone cold in the vacuum of space. The body also had no oxygen, or whatever these creatures breathed. Not yet done Haley got a fresh scalpel and slowly cut out the eyes and placed them in individual test tubes.

Holding one up to the light she could see the eye was a bright yellow colour and the eye looked as if it was staring back at her. "Oh you have such pretty eyes"

"Uh..ma'am?" One of her aides looked a little green, he could deal with cut open bodies but Dr Haley was on another planet entirely.

She turned to him with a dark look "What?"

"Absolutely nothing ma'am"

Instantly smiling she turned her attention back to the body. The room they were in was sealed and they were wearing hazmat armour with three layers of protection between them and any potential toxins that the alien could be holding.

All around the test subject were camera's that recorded from all angles what was happening. The other dead bodies were either being studied by others or put into the morgue to keep them intact for further study.

"Quite remarkable arent they?" Haley remarked

"Yes, ma'am. Never thought aliens would be so similar and yet so different from us"

"Wonders of the galaxy Sampson, wonders of the galaxy"

The aide could only nod.

–

–

Helmsman Kuri was not feeling comfortable. What they all thought was a easy search and destroy mission had turned out to be a disastrous first contact with a ruthless enemy. When they first saw the ships and the distant object orbiting the planet they were caught off guard but the Commander had ordered an attack when their sensors detected they were being scanned.

They expected an easy victory, the Turians had the best armed forces after all, and were shocked that the first shots from the unknown ships destroyed the Valour. The battle all went downhill from there. When the Turian ships lined up and regained order they believed that they had the advantage and the destruction of most of the missiles seemed to prove it. It was a false hope however, as three ships suddenly went offline and their atmosphere vented, one ship, the Soldier Spirit, reported a malfunction in their FTL drives before suddenly exploding. Finally his own ship just stopped responding to any commands he gave and the engines cut out, leaving them adrift and at the mercy of these aliens.

When they felt they were being towed the crew set up defensive positions, expecting to be boarded and were prepared to fight to the last. They were in for another unpleasant surprise as the ship suddenly started sparking around them and sent debilitating amounts of electricity through their bodies, leaving all of them twitching on the ground or paralysed.

Currently he was restrained on a uncomfortable metal chair, metal locks across his chest, his forearms and wrists, his thighs, calfs and ankles kept him in place. The room had one door, was a plain white colour and had one light directly above him shining on him. When the door opened he surveyed who he assumed would be his torturer.

The alien was about the standard height of Turians. He was wearing what looked like armour, it was slightly bulky at the shoulders and was painted a plain white and had red diagonal stripes from the shoulders across the chest. The helmet did not have a visor and Kuri could not see the beings face, it was also white and had red lines, some criss crossing each other as some sort of design.

The alien said nothing as he approached with an object in hand, Kuri futilely struggled as the alien forced his head forward to put whatever he had on the back of his head. When placed Kuri felt a slight stab in his skull and felt blood trickle down.

The alien stepped back and remained silent, watching him. The alien then made a noise, like it was speaking to him but Kuri could not understand and remained silent. The alien spoke again but Kuri still remained silent, he would not break.

–

–

Information Extraction Officer George Tindel was intrigued and slightly frustrated by his new subject. He saw the battle and was alerted soon after to get ready. He had numerous available equipment but these were all for human subjects, he did not know what to expect from these aliens. Though he did go through some brief talks with the scientists who were working on the alien corpses, he had absolutely no idea how to do his job with this..thing.

He used a international translator specifically made by him for information extraction purposes. It incorporated a lie detector and would emit a good jolt through the subjects nervous system when the detector went off. Though it was meant for humans the scientists gave him enough info that he placed it on a sensitive spot on these aliens.

All he had to do was get the subject speaking so the translator could decipher the words, he also had recording machines set up around the room to record what the thing was saying. So far though he had no such luck, looking at the thing through his viewing screen he could see that this creature had backbone, and a lot of it.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" He said, though he knew the creature probably could not understand. The alien did not reply. Giving a sigh he went back outside to the observation room where the Lord General and Lord Admiral themselves were looking at the holoscreen showing the alien.

"Any luck?" The Lord General asked him

George shook his head no. "He has spine, pain wont work as well against him. Im gonna plan on screwing with his mind"

Luke nodded "Very well, do it"

"I may need another prisoner here soon, can you notify my staff please sir?"

"I thought you were going to play mind tricks?"

"I am, I need a second subject though. Can you tell them to rough it up a bit and make it look like it's been worked on?"

Alexis was already on her headset relaying the request.

Grabbing his tool trolley George saluted and went back to the room.

–

–

The interrogator returned and this time with a trolley of unnerving looking equipment. He made a show of selecting one sharp looking object and dipped it in a container of yellow liquid that dripped off the the object. He then placed the object in another container filled with what looked like..._Is that Turian blood!_

When the the sharp implement made contact with the blood the blood seemed to fizz and bubble, at first gently but then it was spiting and Kuri could hear the fierce fizzing. Seemingly happy with that the alien picked up another object but was interrupted when the door opened and another prisoner was dragged in, a black bag placed over their head, futilely struggling against the two aliens who looked similar to the interrogator.

Instantly Kuri felt dread hit his stomach _Oh spirits please dont let it be her, please! _

When the bag was removed Kuri felt his resolve crack and splinter. It was Liyah, his mate. She appeared injured, one arm was bent the wrong way and blood was leaking from her bruised beak. Her face was also bruised and her eyes were cast low.

"Let her go you monsters! Let her go!" Instantly he broke his silence and started struggling against his bonds.

This seemed to surprise the interrogator but Kuri could not tell, he was too focused on yelling at the other two.

Liyah looked up and her eyes met that of her mate and she dreaded what was to happen to both of them. "Dont struggle, please, their using me to get to you!"

This seemed to calm Kuri down as he stopped thrashing about. The interrogator looked on for a moment before nodding to one of the aliens restraining Liyah. The alien pulled his arm back and sent a cracking blow to Liyah's face, making his mate yell out in pain.

"You bastard! Let her go! Let her go now!"

Liyah looked up to tell her mate to not react but the interrogator had stomped then ground down his foot on her calf, breaking a few bones and making her scream out in agonizing pain. This seemed to enrage Kuri further as he started yelling insults at the aliens.

"Please Kuri, please dont dishonour yourself" She tried in vain to reason with her beloved mate but her voice was weak and hoarse from screaming.

Kuri kept on struggling but now he was in tears, now he was begging and pleading.

–

–

"Dont—You—stop-please!"

The translator was doing it's job, a little slower than he wanted but George was not in any rush. The two aliens seemed to know each other so he used this good turn of luck, for him anyway, to his advantage. The more the restrained one screamed and shouted the more the translator got. Grabbing a syringe he filled it with the yellow liquid that seemed to make the alien blood go crazy and grabbed subject B's hand and injected a fraction of what was inside. The effect was slow but soon the subject was screaming and thrashing, the skin in it's hand seemed to be moving before what George assumed to be it's nerves blew and sprayed blue blood over the two IE agents.

"NOOOOOO!"

That done it, the translator worked.

"You bastard, you sick, despicable monster. I'll kill you! You understand me! I'll kill you!"

"Oh yes, I understand"

The alien seemed startled and went quiet for a moment before shouting again.

"Let her go, she has nothing to do with this, let her go! By the spirits let her go!" He seemed to be sincerely begging. The toxin in subject B's hand however would not wait and another nerve blew, eliciting another scream of pain.

"Stop it! Stop it!"

George's voice was calm, as if he was unfazed by the state of the prisoner. "I'll make a deal with you, you answer every question I ask in the best possible detail and I'll administer the cure. Oh and dont lie, it will make this worse for both of you"

The alien looked at George for a moment, then to the second subject before slumping down on it's chair, having given up struggling. "Fine"

* * *

AN:

Thanks for reading and as always please review! Thank you as well to the alerts and favourites, nice to know you guys like it!

I think I may have overpowered the humans in this, do you guys and gals think so too?

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

**IE: **Information Extraction

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.


	4. Contact Code Red

AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**Turian 15th Fleet Headquarters on the planet Boetia**_

Admiral Kering sat in his office reading up on recent reports when his eyes glanced at one in particular. This one was sent by Captain Turus of the twelfth scout group, he was a good, solid Turian, though a bit arrogant Turus had good potential. Kering was slightly concerned however that the Captain had yet to return or report and it had been two days since he pursued the pirates through the newly activated Relay.

What mainly concerned him was that although the Captain was good he had little experience and commanded old ships since this sector of space was deemed unimportant by the High Command in Palaven. He was posted here because he was on leave and was told to get the recently reconstituted 15th Fleet up to fighting shape. It was a mix of a small core of veterans supplemented with fresh recruits. Kering has the veterans share their experience with the recruits and take them out on mock missions. They also staged unannounced drills every now and then to keep the recruit's talons sharp.

Most of their ships were not top of the line but they were good enough to patrol a low threat area like this. Currently they had one hundred and twenty Cruisers separated into patrol groups of ten ships each with another one hundred frigates. Half of the cruisers were in dock undergoing maintainance and only eighty frigates were operational, the others also being maintained. Kering could honestly admit he missed the Quarians at times like these, they would have those ships up and running in half the time the dock workers ever could.

Tapping a few buttons on his console he contacted one of the Captain Commanders. The painted face of Nihlus Arteria appeared. He was snapped a quick salute "What do you need Admiral?"

"Get the 6th, 7th and 10th patrol groups and thirty frigates up and running"

"Sir?"

"One of our patrol groups, the 12th, chased some pirates through a Mass Relay the pirates activated two days ago. They haven't returned or even sent a message back yet and im a little concerned. I want you and Captain Commander Arturus Sulin to go and find them"

"Sixty ships sir? Quite a lot for a search and rescue op"

"Better to be prepared Nihlus, they did say there were hostiles and it is uncharted space, you might be looking for days. Now go, dismissed"

Nihlus gave a salute before the feed cut off. Suddenly Kering remembered something "By the spirits, I forgot to report the activation!" To cover up his negligence he wrote the report but claimed that a task force was in pursuit of pirates that had just activated the Relay.

–

–

_**OSS Roman**_

It had been quite an eventful two days for everybody. Fleet one, commanded by Admiral Marsha Collette on the flagship carrier Warlord, had assembled along with Fleet two, commanded by Admiral Henry Murillo on the flagship carrier Titania , around the Astral Gate and they were being re-enforced by a recently arrived OSS and close ally of Roman, OSS Gaul.

The 1st and 2nd Gallic Fleet were renown for their skills in close quarters ship-to-ship combat, employing advanced AI, short ranged energy canons and they even had boarding capabilities for their special forces, the Assault Squads. OSS Gaul had a preference for energy weaponry, which made OSS Roman it's main trading partner and from there good friendships were made and eventually the two were good allies. It also helped that, like OSS Roman, OSS Gaul was fully militarised.

OSS Gaul was not as large as it's ally. It held a population of seven hundred thousand in fifty habitation rings. It's defences included long range ion canons, the same ones as employed on OSS Roman, rail guns, point defence lasers and the same shielding on OSS Roman though on a smaller scale. It's Navy numbered one carrier, fifteen main battleships and ninety light battleships.

The carrier, Alesia, was the once the flagship of another OSS but was captured when they got on the wrong end of the OSS Gaul. Small scale fights between OSS's was more common than people realised. Although the CISS was the official main governing body of the OSS's they were only a sort of advisory group, the OSS's didn't have to actually _listen_ to them. However in times of great conflict the CISS and it's main members would step in and solve the issue or if ever someone declared war on the OSS's the CISS would be a rallying point. This system mean that small engagements between two or three OSS's went ignored and militarised OSS's like the Roman and Gaul could, every now and then, attack other OSS's. Most of the time the target was another militarised OSS since not much experience could be gained attacking other types of stations.

Alesia was a top of the line carrier produced by Ganymede Corporation, a company well known for making high quality, customised ships tailored to the customers needs. The Alesia appeared to be made as a command centre and a unassailable fortress. It was only through sheer luck that Gallic forces had managed to strike fast enough to take the ship just when the crew were starting their test runs and most things, including the weapons system, were offline. The ship was boarded and soon the captain surrendered it in exchange for their lives and freedom.

Alesia was larger than most other carriers at two thousand eight hundred and fifty metres. It was armed with three long range Araike fourth generation type five ion canons, several large Araike fifth generation type one rail guns and countless point defence lasers. An advanced Aegis shielding system, fifth generation type two, made sure it could take heavy punishment and even if it did fail the advanced Titan superheavy fifth generation type three armour was up to the job of defending against all manner of known weaponry. The ship also had five AI's and excellent communications, being able to direct other ships effectively and efficiently even in the heat of battle and under cyber attack. The carrier had a maximum capacity of one thousand eight hundred MCA's.

The main battleships were designed by Omar but were stolen and produced by Kojima Technology as their fourth generation type three, adjusting the original designs to better incorporate energy weaponry. It was armed with two standard Araike fourth generation type one ion canons and two twin barrelled Araike rail guns. Aegis standard third generation shields protected the ship along with fourth generation type three Theros heavy armour. Each ship had one AI to help with the management.

The Gallic light battleships were the cream of their navy and they were impressive machines of war. Nicknamed the "Chariots" they were produced Ek-Khazar and were well armed, well protected and very manoeuvrable. Three two barrelled fourth generation type three rail guns were the main armaments, Theros medium armour and Aegis fourth generation shielding protected the vessel. The ships had two dedicated defence and attack AI's but what truly separated the Chariots from normal light battleships were the boarding pods fired from missile tubes at the sides of the vessel. These pods would contain the elite Assault Squads of the Gallic army, they would first be fired from the tubes at point blank range and when contact was made they would drill through the armour and into the ship where the soldiers would then exit and commence their attack.

At the moment the OSS Gaul's chief commander Benoit Duclos were in a hangar bay with both the Lord Admiral and Lord General, they were here to look at the "Turian" Cruiser.

"So, give me the run down. What are we dealing with here?" Benoit was as tall as most Romans with genetic enhancements being common on militarised OSS's. He was fifty years old, had a military buzz cut, a typical French moustache and a slight accent.

"These aliens call themselves Turians and they are part of a larger galactic community ruled by a Council where the Turians and two others, Asari and Salarians, are the governing body. There are other races but these three seem to be the most significant." Alexis was recounting to him what she and Luke had learned during the Extraction and examination of both the dead bodies and the ships.

"Why did they attack unprovoked though?"

"Apparently what we know as the Astral Gate is a Mass Relay to them, it uses what they call Mass Effect technology to accelerate large masses, like ships, over to it's connected Relay. Activating a primary relay like this one is illegal and these Turians thought that pirates had activated the Gate and chased after them. When they got here they attacked after they detected we were scanning their ships"

"So these Turians are aggressive and hostile?"

"Not necessarily, it's just that since they are the main military of the Council they can be more arrogant since no other species can match their military might they thought they could 'teach us a lesson' as it were"

"This would be amazing, the discovery of an entire galactic community, if it were on better circumstances. Now the UCM is sending in their 5th Fleet and Earth is showing signs of forming the Coalition. The CISS is getting interested as well, sending in the New Kronshtadt's 1st Fleet"

"Huh, so we aren't overacting at all are we?" Marcus remarked as he walked out of the Turian cruiser.

Benoit smiled and laughed upon seeing the boy "Ah, good to see you again, your starting to look like a soldier now aren't you?"

Marcus gave a "meh" before shaking hands with the man. "So, wanna take a tour?"

Benoit nodded "Lead ahead"

–

–

_**OSS Roman Fleet 1 Flagship Warlord**_

Admiral Marsha was forty five years old and had twenty years of experience as a commander, first in a light battleship then in a main battleship. This experience made the woman the perfect person to command Fleet one. To counter any enemy invasion from the Astral Gate she had the light battleships of both Roman and Gaul position themselves above the object so they could sweep down and catch the enemy off guard. The Roman main battleships would surround the gate and make sure they each had a clear line of fire, the carriers with the exception of the Alesia were to stay outside the cordon and provide support. The Alesia was in the thick of it, surrounded by the fifteen main battleships of the Gallic navy.

"Ma'am the Astral Gate is emitting an energy spike!" Her helmsman warned her.

_This is it _"Tell the battleships and lighties to load up Longbow Missiles, half load! Get all ion canons charged and ready to fire. Have all capable AI's ready to conduct cyberwarfare."

Tapping her console she broadcasted a message to all channels "This is it ladies and gentlemen! The enemy will not surrender and they will be out after your life and the lives of comrades, do your duty and stick to your training! We'll beat these sons of bitches and use their scrap heap of ships as target practice!"

A loud chorus of exited yells answered her from all ships and her own crew.

"Charismatic as ever my dear" Henry's face appeared on the holographic projector of her headset.

"Just don't do anything stupid, Alexis will skin your balls if you get a scratch on the Titania"

He laughed "Encouragement enough, good luck!"

–

–

_**15th Fleet task force Flagship Galata**_

Captain Commander Nihlus Artera expected to find a vast empty space, maybe a platen or two. What he did not expect to find was an unknown fleet that completely surrounded them.

"Sir! Their firing missiles!" His helmsman warned him.

"Get the shields up and get every ship into battle stations!"

The missiles came in as a giant mass of projectiles. When they were in range the GARDIAN lasers worked as hard as they could to take down as many as possible. However the sheer volume of missiles meant that the GARDIAN's overheated very quickly and several ships paid the price.

"The Righteous, Valorous and the Brave have gone down!"

The missiles kept on coming from all directions and three more ships were destroyed and a large number of other ships had their shields drained. The shaking and impacts were intense, rocking the ship beyond the stabilisers control.

"Shields are at forty percent!"

When the missiles stopped Nihuls was about the give to order to fall back through the relay but what appeared to be a wall of light ended any thoughts he might have as his ship was obliterated by the enemy.

–

_**OSS Roman main battleship Torch**_

Captain Miranda Laureen was disappointed. She had wanted a thrill, she had wanted a large scale face-to-face fight with heavily armed alien enemies, she wanted to feel her heart beat like a war drum and see her life flash before her eyes but it was not to be. The initial barrage of missiles had some effect but the enemy point defence seemed to be able to deal with the missiles quite well, this gave her hope that this was a good enemy to fight against but she was severely disappointed when one or two shots from an ion canon and the enemy ships were cut apart.

"This is a turkey shoot" She casually remarked as the enemy ships seemed to be in disarray, some trying to form up and some trying to fall back. Some did manage to retreat back through the Astral Gate but most were cut apart under the blinding barrage of energy weapons.

The carnage was sickeningly entertaining for her, it was like she was watching an action holovid. The enemy ships were being lanced through with beams of light, some were left like blocks of metal cheese while others exploded in a spectacular manner, spreading debris and even bodies out into the vastness of space. The enemy stood no chance, it was a perfectly executed ambush.

Two ships however had managed to launch some kind of missile and they was going directly for her ship. Sensing something to fulfil her carnal high she gave an order to her defence combat officer "Shut down the point defence lasers"

The officer was not too surprised, he had served with captain Miranda for five years now. "Are you sure ma'am?"

She gave him a raised eyebrow look , he sighed "Very well, you know one of the Admirals will give you hell for this?"

"Dont care" Was her quick response.

As the missiles sped closer Miranda's fingers started to twitch in anticipation. When they hit she was pleasantly surprised.

"Shields are down forty percent!" Her helmsman yelled.

Miranda felt a shudder of relief, similar to what a druggie would get when they got their high. She sucked in a breath to steady herself and closed her eyes, trying to enjoy the feeling for as long as possible.

The bridge staff looked worriedly at their captain, they loved her and were loyal to her, she after all been with them for quite a long time, but this behaviour was slightly worrying them. She was never this bad before.

–

–

_**Turian 15th Fleet Headquarters on the planet Boetia**_

Admiral Kering was in a discussion with his secretary Arell about popular books and extranet videos when a beeping interrupted them. Looking at his desk his eyes widened when it was the critical emergency console that he was being contacted through. Quickly dismissing his secretary he answered the important line.

"What is it?"

The face of a junior frigate captain that appeared, he looked haggard and frightened "Sir! We...we..we attacked sir!" The man was shaking and trying to salute at the same time.

"Attacked? By what?"

"Co..contact...c...code …. Red...sir" He replied in between shaking and twitching.

Admiral Kering felt dread knot itself in his chest. "No...by the spirits no!"

Contact Code Red: Contact has been made with new hostile species.

* * *

AN:

Well, thanks for reading and as always please review! Thank you to all those who reviewed as well! Though I dont feel as if this chapter is any good.

To the anon who raised the technology disbalance: Thanks, that gave me something to think about but as I see it Citadel technology is so centred around Mass Effect that they can only develop what already exists instead of coming up with something new. I think they are comfortable with it and dont see a need to develop any other type of technology. For example they have little defence against direct energy weaponry because they themselves have not put much into developing the weaponry so they dont need a defence for it. Please review if you disagree though, i'ts nice to exchange ideas.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.


	5. Dogs of War

AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**Citadel Council conference chamber**_

The three councillors were gathered in the chamber to discuss one of the most important matters to affect the entire galactic community in the last few hundred years. One previously inactive primary relay had been activated and contact had been made with a new and hostile race. The chance of Contact Code Red was one of the many reasons why the law was implemented, the nightmare of the Rachni wars had permanently scarred the galaxy.

The Turian councillor Savarus addressed his fellow members "A few hours ago the Turian 15th Fleet assembled a task force and chased pirates that activated a primary relay, they were gone for no more than thirty minutes when five ships returned and reported Contact Code Red. They were the only ones to return so far"

The Asari councillor Losana added her piece "Do we know anything about this new species? Can they be negotiated with?"

The Turian shook his head "No, all we know is from the accounts of the survivors, they use missiles and energy weaponry and they did not attempt to make contact before firing"

Losana looked to her Salarian colleague Ledra "We should try and make contact, solve this issue diplomatically if we can"

"Sending a ship through the Relay would most likely be futile, if these hostiles prefer to fight than talk we will achieve nothing. I recommend we re-enforce the area around the Relay and prevent anyone from going in, or anyone coming out"

Savarus nodded "The Hierarchy has already posted the 17th and 20th Fleet around Relay 314, they are also asking for permission to launch the Archon" The Archon was a dreadnought class ship, nine hundred metres long, built around it's giant mass accelerator capable of firing one twenty kilogram slug. The slug had the kinetic power of thirty eight kilotons of TNT and would lay waste to anything other than another dreadnought.

The Asari Matriarch Losana gave a sad sigh "I suggest we put it in reserve"

Ledra nodded "I concur"

Savarus handed the two the permission form required to launch a dreadnought, both signed it and with a last signature from him he called for an aide to relay the form. "So we form a line of defence and close of the relay permanently?"

"It is the only thing we can do"

–

–

_**OSS Roman **_

The soldiers of OSS Roman were assembled in their designated rallying points. 450,000 soldiers were assembled and lined up in neat orderly rows, the four divisions having their own rallying point. Each infantry division had 112,500 Soldiers separated into five brigades of 22,500. These brigades were separated into 15 battalions of 1500 soldiers each, each battalion was separated into 6 platoons of 250 men. The platoons were further separated into 5 battle groups of 50 soldiers each. Each battle group was made of 5 squads of ten soldiers each. A squad included; one squad commander, one sniper, one spotter, two medics, two heavy soldiers, one communicator and two standard soldiers. **(1)**

They were supported by the Armored Core who held 100,000 MCA's in ten divisions of 10,000 each, the divisions were made up of ten brigades of 1000 MCA's and the brigades were separated into squadrons of ten MCA's each. Each squadron was personalised with their own squad colours and emblems and to encourage friendly competition each squadron was ranked with the number one squadron being the best and the hundredth squadron being the worst.

There were also the 70,000 IFV's that performed multi-functional roles like ground support, artillery and medevac. Seven divisions of 10,000 IFV's were divided into 20 brigades of 500 IFV's. Five IFV brigades were attached to each Infantry brigade to provide support so each infantry brigade had 2000 IFV's to call on.

Further still the soldiers were supported by 30,000 Hawk assault transports. The machines resembled helicopters of 21st century earth. They were used to transport squad sized soldiers and supplies as well as provide fire support and air strikes. They were armed with two mounted electric six barrelled Gatling canons that could fire fifty rounds a second, two rocket pods each containing twenty rockets set as anti-armour or anti-personnel. For defence they had Aegis shielding and two point defence lasers as well as armour made to scatter lock on targeting systems.

They were assembled because the Lord General Lukas Alexander was about to make an announcement. Walking to the top of the podium Luke was nearly blinded by the amount of light shining on his spot from the many camera drones and spotlights. Above him hung the OSS Roman flag. It had a white background and in it's centre was a black eagle with wings spread and it's talons were gripping a red laurel wreath that spread out at the eagles sides. He was standing on a podium above the assembled 1st division, the most experienced veterans of the Roman army. Behind and beside the blocks of soldiers were their IFV's. The camera's projected his face to the other divisions who were watching on large holoscreens.

Luke took a deep breath to calm his heart and mustered up his strongest and most inspiring voice "Soldiers of Roman! We are at war! Two days ago we had made contact with hostile aliens that call themselves Turians. They attacked us unprovoked because they thought that we're pushovers, that we'd just roll over and give up! We will not!" Luke raised a fist and slammed it on the podium, the assembled soldiers cheered

"In their turf their the big dogs, they are the alpha wolves. That's only because they haven't met us yet! They have not seen our might! WE have the better ships, the bigger guns and most importantly we have the best soldiers! YOU!"

Luke extended his arms towards the soldiers and they cheered even louder. "You are the strength of your nation! The strength in my arms! You who hold us up above all others! You are our pride, our greatest glory!"

Luke stopped to take a breath and let the atmosphere come down "We are are not going to wait for them to come to us, we will bring the fight to them! The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis, that we are the bringers of his demise! We'll show them that we are not to be messed with! We will bring the fury only humanity can bring down upon their heads and they make them regret the day they ever fired that first shot!

But remember, you are soldiers, not murderers. Be ferocious in battle but be magnanimous in victory, stick to the rules of engagement you were taught, respect your enemy, they have a right to surrender and it is your duty and obligation to make sure that they see their families and their homes once more, you will not fight those who cannot fight back, you will aid the wounded be they yours or the enemies, you will give food and protection to those that require it, you shall not commit acts that would marr your name and that of your family and your nation, you shall do what is right because it is right.

Now go! Know I will accept nothing but complete and total victory!"

A great cheer rose up from the entire station, men, women, young and old cheered their soldiers on to victory.

–

_Two hours earlier, right after the Second battle of the Gate_

_The Lord Admiral and Lord General had assembled their commanding officers and the war council of the OSS Gaul. After the attempt at what they assumed was scouting in force the Lord Admiral and Lord General had suggested attacking instead of waiting. The Gallic war council had agreed and with the promise of support from the UCM they had convened to map out a plan of attack._

_They were well informed, the data acquired by the capture of the in-tact ships, examination of the dead crew and the Information Extraction Agents made sure they were not going in blind. _

_Both Lord's tapped their canes on the table to announce the beginning of the planning. "Using the intelligence we have we can assume that the Council have sent the Turians to set up a defensive position and commence a force build up, the plan is to attack and disrupt this before they pose a threat that we cannot counter_

_The ships we have faced here are not their top of the line models but we can take comfort in the fact that they have little or no defence against high powered energy weapons like ion canons. However there will be a real chance that we will be outnumbered"_

_One of the Gallic war councillors raised his hand and Luke motioned for him to speak "What is the plan of attack? If they are in a defensive position it's going to be a hard fight out of the Gate and we may be destroyed right as we come out"_

_Alexis shook her head "Our shielding, while not optimised for projectiles, will be enough to give us an edge over their Cruisers, as long as we get enough ships in there fast enough our weapons can quickly even the numbers odds . The real threat is from one of their Dreadnoughts, the gun on those will destroy a main battleship in one shot and the round may even go through the shields of another ship. If we do encounter these Dreadnoughts tell your captains to get out the way of it's gun and attack it with their AI's""_

_Luke took over "Another thing that helps us is that they have little defence against cyberwarfare attacks, their development of AI was banned and the best they can do in that field is try and hack into our comms. The plan is to disable their ability to communicate with each other as soon as we come out, then disable their weapons and shields, which is why the Alesia will be at the forefront since it has the most advanced attacking AI"_

_Benoit smiled, he was eager to be the first into the fight. _

"_When we have secured a beachhead we will advance on the nearby planet of Boetia and launch our invasion of the main city, there are three major targets, the spaceport, the Military HQ and the main government building. Once a flag, either Roman or Gallic, flies over the three targets we will bring the OSS's in orbit around the planet and demand that the Council surrender"_

_A councillor raised his hand "Do you think they will?" _

_Luke nodded "While we on our own cannot match the production power of the Citadel we do have the UCM and the Kronshtadt Fleets coming in about three or four hours time. If we can prove to them that we are much more powerful than what they see it will give them pause and consideration"_

"_So, a fast and surgical victory that shows them our military might?" _

_Alexis nodded "Pretty much, now if you need any more information one of our Admirals or Generals have been briefed already" Three cane taps and the meeting was adjourned. _

–

–

_**OSS Gaul 1st Fleet flagship Alesia**_

"_Now go! Know I will accept nothing but total victory!"_

"Good speech, but didnt he forget we're here too?" Alesia's XO Claudia Lavalle asked Benoit.

"No, the speech for us is my job. Patch me to all our ships" Benoit closed the holoscreen and stood on the bridge of the Alesia with as much professionalism and authority as he could muster.

"Your good to go sir"

He took a breath and turned to the holoscreens showing the bridges of the other Gallic ships "Soldiers of Gaul! Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war! We are ready! Never give up; never dig in; never defend; always attack; never worry about defeat, never take council of your fears; think of and plan only for victory; we win by never losing. To win a battle one must make their mind run the body because the body will always give up from exhaustion. When you are tired, the enemy is just as tired; never let the enemy rest. Hound him down and crush him. Make him realise you are his better for you are.

But, like our good ally Lord General said, be ferocious in battle and be magnanimous in victory, make sure you act with proper conduct and hold respect for the enemy, when they woke up this morning they were not expecting to die so give them dignity in death.

Now! Soldiers of Gaul, Into the breach we go!"

With a final salute the from Benoit and a cheer from the Gallic forces the Alesia launched herself into the heat of battle, the allied forces in hot pursuit. The First Contact War had officially begun.

* * *

AN:

Ooohh, it's all heating up now!

**(1) **If that was confusing im sorry, it was horribly confusing for me too.

Thanks for reading and please review to let me know what you think.


	6. Invasion pt1

AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

_**

* * *

Relay 314**_

The Turians had set up a good defensive position. The remains of 15th Fleet were to be kept in dock and their maintainance hurried, 17th Fleet had set up patrols around the relay and 20th Fleet were setting up a line of defence. The Turian crews, while going about their duty, did not honestly expect an enemy to come charging at them. However with seventy of their ships gone they did not lax and kept up their alertness. That did not mean they were surprised when a huge ship came out of the Relay though.

"Admiral! The enemy are attacking!" Captain Commander Cabalus's helmsman called.

"Tell all ships to fire!" He ordered.

"I cant sir!"

"What?" He rounded on his helmsman as he was frantically typing away, trying to get the order out to the other ships.

"Communications aren't working and weapons have been disabled!...Sir their firing!"

Lances of light streaked out from the largest ship and the other ships that were starting to arrive, when they hit the Turian Cruisers either exploded or were simply left there as floating debris with giant holes in them. Individual ships of both 17th and 20th Fleets started firing, seemingly being able to regain control of their weapons but the communications were still dark and as more enemy ships poured in more of Cabalus's ships were destroyed or disabled.

"We cant stay still, scatter and hope the Fleet follows!"

Obeying his order the pilot started to weave about, slowly but surely the other ships got the idea and started doing the same, significantly reducing the casualties caused by the potent energy weapons. However the Captain Commander still could not contact his fleet and only a few were able to fire their mass accelerators, only damaging the shields of the enemy vessels.

"Their firing missiles!"

The enemy had advanced in formation around the larger vessel and the escorts had fired a wave of missiles at the Turians. "Weapons are online but now we dont have point defence or shields!"

Eyes widening Cabalus could only order his ship to dodge the missiles and try and get a shot off at the increasingly growing mass of enemy ships. Around him Turian ships, lacking their GARDIAN laser arrays and shields, were hit and destroyed by the missiles. Cabalus let out a growl of frustration and quickly ordered his ship to withdraw, however with communications impossible it took time for the rest of the fleet to trickle back to the planet, some not lucky enough to escape.

–

–

_**OSS Gaul 1st Fleet Flagship Alesia**_

"Ha! Their running!" Benoit Cheered and waved his fist in the air, the bridge crew joining him.

"How many did we get?"

"About seventy to eighty Cruisers and a few Frigates, we have no reports of injuries , the AI done their jobs well" His XO responded.

Suddenly the holoprojection of one of the ships AI appeared. Vercingetorix was a truly life-sized Gallic chieftain. Long wavy brown hair and an impressive moustache , even wearing the green and brown clothes of the classical Gallic people he was the main dedicated attack AI.

"Hah! This enemy is barely worth my skills!" He boasted in his deep, gruff voice.

Benoit chuckled "Easy there 'Rix, this isnt over yet"

The AI raised his sword in a salute and disappeared. The Alesia advanced with more and more main battleships and light battleships pouring in from the Astral Gate, forming a crescent formation with the Alesia at the centre and the light battleships behind the wall of main battleships. Then came the two carriers of the Romans who positioned themselves at each end of the crescent.

Three carriers, eighty five main battleships and one hundred and forty light battleships advanced on the reforming Turian fleet around the medium sized planet of Boetia.

"Sir, we've detected a Dreadnought with the Turian Fleet"

"Put it on screen"

What appeared on the holoscreen did not do much to impress the carrier bridge crew. It was slightly smaller than a main battleship from the OSS Roman but what did take their notice was the huge main gun on the centre of the vessel. There would be no doubt that the gun would destroy a main battleship in one shot.

"It's a giant gun" Claudia remarked blandly.

"A really big giant gun" Benoit agreed "Tell the rest of the ships to stay out of that things way and have our Chariots disable it with their AI's and board it"

"Want a new toy do you?"

Benoit chuckled "A present to my wife actually, I think our anniversary is next week"

Claudia raised an eyebrow "You think?"

"I hope"

–

–

_**OSS Roman main battleship Torch**_

Captain Miranda was once again itching to feel the thrill of the fight. Despite being scolded by Admiral Murillo and warned if she ever did something as reckless as that again there would be consequences, Miranda was let off without as much as a slap on the hand. Mainly because thanks to her they found out how devastating the disruptor torpedoes of the enemy were and the captains were ordered to prioritise these torpedoes in their point defence systems.

The Torch was positioned at the centre of the crescent, nearer the front along with most of the Roman main battleships, mainly because their guns outranged those of the Gallic navy. As the invasion force drew closer and closer they were warned to stay out of the firing zone of the now visible dreadnought. When they were in range, the Roman ships opened fire.

Lances of light once again ravaged the Turian fleet but they were smarter now, the enemy ships used their smaller size to great effect and dodged and weaved between shots. A shot from the Torch clipped one Cruiser by the tail end but another shot from the ship next to the Torch destroyed it completely. Miranda was miffed that her kill was stolen and sent a laser shot from her point defence to the other ship. The ship captains reply was sent to her headset.

"Aim better next time then"

Return fire was now getting more intense from the enemy and as the two sides drew closer the first torpedoes were fired, however these were shot down by the laser point defences. The main battleships' shields were being whittled down, then just after the order was given to part a shot from the dreadnought destroyed a main battleship and carried on to shatter the shields and damage the hull of a light battleship behind it.

"Use your AI's! Disable the enemy communications and weapons!" The order rang out from the Alesia.

Another shot was fired from the dreadnought and another battleship went down before fire from the enemy fleet drastically died down. The AI's were doing their jobs. By now the crescent parted to allow the light battleships, who were not going to be part of the planetary invasion, through and the main battleships formed a battle line, firing their ion canons into the enemy.

The light battleships were already engaged with an enemy that was severely weakened. The dreadnought was having a hard time of it, being swarmed by numerous Gallic chariots who were were firing their boarding pods.

"Enemy reinforcements coming from the planet!" Miranda's XO yelled. Sure enough there were more ships and what looked like fighters coming from the planet.

"All invasion forces, make your way planet side and take the city!"

The two Roman carriers, Warlord and Titania, along with twenty light battleships and five main battleships, including the Torch, split off from the space battle and down towards the planet. Ion canons fired on the enemy reinforcements and a few ships were destroyed, the enemy ships returned fire with torpedoes and their main guns, covering their fighters.

The hangar bays of both the Warlord and Titania opened up and out came their load of spacefighting MCA's. The war machines came out in their squads of ten like waves and headed straight for the enemy. Compared to planetary MCA's used by the army naval MCA's were lighter and not bulky like most ground MCA's. They were slim in design, armed with one shoulder mounted energy canon and one shoulder mounted pulse gun for ranged fighting and for close quarters and anti-ship combat they had energy shields and flash blades. They were protected by Aegis shielding systems and armour that made them hard to track and lock on to.

"Captain Miranda, take the invasion force and land, we'll deal with the reinforcements" Admiral Marsha ordered the captain.

The rest of the ships, now without the carriers, carried on towards the planet. Before the light battleships carrying the ground troops could go on and land Miranda first ordered two EMP missiles to be fired. The Torch and another main battleship, the Speartip, fired their EMP and watched as the projectiles hit the city, shutting down all power and hopefully all defensive systems.

The light battleships now made their way to the planet to land and deposit their forces, the main battleships stood guard for any surprises the enemy made.

–

–

_**MCA Artemis, 20th squad, Olympians**_

MCA Artemis, piloted by Allie Flannigan, was a part of the Olympians, the 20th ranked MCA squad in the carrier Warlord. Considering there were one hundred and thirty other squads the Olympians were pretty good. Currently Artemis was pursuing an enemy fighter who was trying to shake her off it's tail.

"Come on, stay still you bitch!" Allie growled in frustration as the fighter was moving too fast for the early fourth generation targeting system to lock on. It dived down and activated a boost to gain some distance between it and the Hunter, when the fighter expertly manoeuvred a tight turn and swang back up the Turian pilot expected to find the enemy it it's line of fire and completely surprised. What he did not expect was a beam of electricity heading strait for him to slam into and destroy his fighter.

Allie was already on the move, going above another fighter who was on the tail of one of her squad mates and destroying that with a burst from her pulse gun. Another squad mate came in from below her and destroyed a fighter that was making a dive for her.

Using squad comm she said a quick "thanks" and partnered up with another squad mate to attack more fighters.

The MCA's had a lot of advantages over the Turian fighters. First of all was the Interface and Integration System or IIS, which connected the pilot to the machine. Essentially this meant that the pilot was the machine, every movement the pilot made would be a movement the MCA copied. For example if a pilot moved their arms the MCA would do so in exactly the same manner. This was because the pilot was 'suspended' in a sort of free floating space within the cockpit by numerous wires that connected to their Integration suit.

The wires also connected to the brain so, with a thought, the pilot could activate their shield or doge left etc. The MCA's sensors fed the pilot information about what was going on around them and the companion AI acted as a secondary pilot, for example if a pilot was engaged and focused on one target and did not notice another one behind it the AI would dodge enemy fire while the pilot kept on focusing on their target. If it was able to the AI would also help destroy targets. If the pilot was incapacitated or unable to fight the AI would take over and carry on the fight for them or fall back into safety. Many awards were given to AI's because of their great help in and out of combat.

The MCA's could also use side, front, back and main boosters to perform manoeuvres and get out of tight spots and also speed up to close into an enemy or fall back from an enemy. All of this meant that the MCA out performed and out gunned the fighters.

Allie landed the Artemis on an enemy ship which had it's point defence system disabled and used her flash blade to cut into the hull. The flash blade was an intense energy sword, used in short swipes the energy blade would form and then deform when the swipe was over. It was made powerful enough to cut into heavy ship armour and it made short work of the Turian frigate's hull, leaving a gaping hole where the pilot would be.

Making some more holes in the ships hull Allie never noticed the pair of enemy fighters going straight for her, however Artemis did. It fired both shoulder mounted weapons and shot the fighters down.

"You really should pay more attention" The regal voice of Allie's AI told her.

"Sorry _mom_" The pilot replied. When she was finished turning the once proud vessel into scrap Allie rejoined her forming squadron. They were going after a Cruiser.

Around her the MCA's were taking casualties , with some squads drifting too far from the main groups and swamped by enemy fighters. Some pilots were also too slow to get away from the point defence systems which burned away their shields and then armour. It was an intense fight, both sides giving it their all.

–

_**36th Squad**_

Squad captain Terrance Hall and the rest of his men had made planet fall two hours ago and now 36th squad of 4th brigade along with other units were pushing through the city and towards their target, the Military HQ. When they landed on the planet it did not occur to them they were the first Humans to set foot on a world inhabited by sentient aliens. What mattered was that they move quickly and capture their objectives within 12 hours.

They had landed outside the city and took the IFV's in, at first encountering resistance from the regular soldiers who, thanks to the EMP's, did not have air support or heavy vehicles and even some of their weapons weren't working, as found when some soldiers took a rocket launcher like thing left behind and tried to use it, it seemed that the firing system was fried and the weapon was rendered useless.

Most of the Roman soldiers were encased in fourth generation type three Global Armaments medium PCA, the sniper and spotter usually choosing the light version and the heavy troops the heavy version. It protected them from all angles and had no weak points that an enemy could drive a dagger into, the multivision helmet was visor less because the armours sensors connected to the brain, letting the soldier see, hear and smell what was around him without the need of a visor. It also had a HUD showing the shield strength, armour strength, ammo count, minimap and position of marked enemies. It's multivison allowed the wearer to see in heat, heartbeat, x-ray, infrared and night vision, making spotting ambushes and snipers easier.

The armour also had a 'blend with the background' ability that meant it could change colour to match that of the environment it was in. For further camouflage the soldier could chose to wrap a mesh netting around it so he could stick on shrubbery. The armour was heavy though, almost one hundred and twenty when fully loaded. Normal soldiers could only use it thanks to the enhancing effects of their ARS or Augmentive Reaction Suites which increased strength, reaction times and speed. The armour connected to the ARS, fully encasing the wearer.

The PCA also had low-range communications and numerous stimulants and disinfectant injectors to keep the soldier fighting when injured. Any other injury though was treated by the medics. Aegis shielding gave the soldier extra longevity in the field.

Currently Terrance was leading his squad through the city streets, which were strewn with vehicles both military and civilian, some looked like they fell out of the sky. Ahead of them were the sniper and spotter team who were watching for ambushes and traps. Terrance was armed with a Omar Armouries third generation type four automatic shotgun, it had a thirty round cartridge magazine and the ability to fire three hundred and fifty round per minute. The ammunition was either electric, which would impact and give a lethal shock to soldiers and take down shields quickly, or explosive which would blow away limbs and huge chunks of the body.

The medics and ordinary soldiers had chosen Omar's fourth generation type two pulse rifles. It could fire single shot or three shot bursts and would make short work of armour and flesh. One heaver trooper was anti-infantry so he had a pulse repeater, it able to give out twenty rounds a second and could burn away cover quickly, making it lethal for enemy infantry. However it could only work with the cooling pack which was strapped on to the soldiers back and wrapped around the gun. The other heavy trooper, designated as anti armour, was armed with a Omar fourth generation type three plasma charged missile launcher capable of taking out MCA's both in the ground and air. It had manual or target lock on and the plasma charged missile would either penetrate then explode or explode on impact and in both situations cover the target with lethal plasma.

They had encountered the enemy twice already, their mass accelerator assault weapons doing a good job of reducing shields but it had yet to hit armour. The enemy were also vulnerable to energy weapons, with their shields only being able to stop projectiles. It did not mean the Turians were being lax though, there were reports from other units about numerous ambushes being spotted and there were even snipers present in the city. An enemy sniper had managed to get a headshot on a trooper, the soldiers' shields drained to ten percent and the trooper was knocked down and received a good concussion, thankfully the PCA had played it's part and stopped the round. So far there were no reported deaths and only injuries.

The soldiers of 36th squad and other units were advancing street by street, supported by IFV's who were setting up medical and supply bases as well as Hawk gunships flying overhead.

Terrance heard a beep which indicated he was being contacted "Alpha thee-six, this is forward alpha-three six, do you read?"

It was the sniper/spotter team ahead of them "I read you forward alpha three-six"

"Tango's have set up machine gun nests all around objective, marking with drone now" His minimap took over his HUD and he could see their objective. It was a large, square building surrounded by a thick hexagonal wall. There was even a large space around the building with no possible cover for advancing infantry, on top of the building and on the walls were enemy soldiers and what looked like machine guns. The enemy were marked with red triangles for infantry and red squares for machine guns. The Turians had set up well, covering all spots.

"Permission for artillery or air strike?" The spotter asked.

"Negative, there could be civilians in the building"

The spotter cut the channel and it was back to silently advancing.

"Would be a nice day if it weren't for the situation" Heavy trooper Marcus Black remarked to his fellow Heavy trooper. It was true, the planet was in it's day cycle and the sun was up and bright in the sky, making it seem like summer.

"Hmm" Sabrina Warden agreed.

Without encountering enemy resistance 36th squad along with it's battle group made it to the buildings that surrounded the enemy HQ. These buildings were smaller than the HQ, only two stories, most likely by design. The battle group commander addressed his soldiers "Here's the plan, the enemy is in a heavily entrenched position and it would be suicide for us to advance right now. We're going to wait a few minutes for IFV support to crack those walls. Meanwhile the snipers will take out the machine guns and the Hawks will be supporting us"

The gathered soldiers formed in three attack groups and waited for their IFV's.

–

–

_**36th Squad sniper team**_

"Two centimetres above"

She adjusted her sight, it was slightly above the target's head.

"Fire"

She squeezed the trigger and the enemy was knocked back along with a spray of blue blood. The spotter checked the drone and confirmed the kill, then found another target, a machine gunner trying to keep his head down.

"Left" Sebastian whispered.

Victoria gently mover her weapon left until Sebastian told her to stop, she identified the target immediately. An enemy who's forehead was just above the barrier he had erected around the machine gun. With instructions from Sebastian she fired another shot, another spray of blue and another confirmed kill. The enemy were constantly keeping their head down and this was the third kill since the two got here, other teams were just as unlucky, having taken out the same number as they or even less, rarely more.

"Hawks are swooping down" Sebastian informed her.

The gunships had free reign of the skies, the enemy would have to expose themselves to sniper fire to use their machine guns on the gunships. The guns of the Hawks pounded the enemy ruthlessly, those without overhead cover thick enough were literary cut down as limbs and pieces of their bodies flew in sprays of blue blood. The enemy were not completely defenceless however, from the windows of the building heavy fire spewed out and peppered the shields of the Hawks. However the Hawks moved just above the building, out of the way of the windows.

–

–

_**36th Squad, 1st attack group. **_

The attack had begun and Sabrina, one of the squads medics, ran behind the IFV that was providing them cover and pounding the walls of the HQ. On the ground lay a soldier who was gripping their head, she moved the hand away and interfaced herself with the soldiers PCA, there were no major injuries, just a concussion and a bad headache. She dragged the moaning man into the IFV so he could rest.

Outside blue pulse fire and plasma fire rained on the enemy and the walls were being brought down by the guns on the new Helios IFV's. Enemy return fire was coming in, forcing soldiers to take cover and ask for sniper support to silence the guns. The shields of the IFV's constantly shimmered due to the amount of fire being brought on them, however they held.

There was a loud boom as one of the IFV's punched a hole in the wall with it's fourth shot and advanced into it, the attack group closely following behind. With one more shot another breach was made and 1st attack group followed their speeding IFV into the breach. Sabrina stayed in the safety of the vehicle, coming out when it stopped inside the HQ courtyards.

The fight for the HQ had begun and the Turians were losing ground quickly. It was only a matter of time before a victor came out.

* * *

AN: Woo, done!

That was the first large scale battle in sci-fi I have ever written, please review to tell me if I could improve or if you have an issue.

Nestor: Yes the speech was taken from numerous sources, one of them from Scholar Visari. I just thought he was a cool orator and copied him :P

Thanks to all those who have reviewed, faved and added this story to their alert! Have a good day!


	7. Invasion pt2

AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**Turian Cruiser Alani **_

They thought they were supreme, they thought that they had all the advantages. Two and a half fleets, five hundred and sixty ships and a dreadnought, no matter who the enemy were they could not hope to ever overcome the massive military presence of the Turian Navy. They were horribly mistaken.

Captain Inala could not fathom being in such a hopeless situation, though they had little information other than the enemy had lethal energy weapons it did not frighten them. She, like most other captains, had ignored the warnings of the survivors with little consideration. They were most likely made up to cover embarrassing mistakes that the recruits had made anyway. She regretted it now though, she and all the others, or what was left. When the enemy came through the Relay the Turians did not expect their weapons and communications to suddenly go offline. They could not fight back and could only try to avoid the beams of light from the enemy ships.

They only had one hope now, as a backup plan the majority of the frigates were ordered to hide behind Boetia's moon where they could not be detected and on a signal they would come out and surprise the enemy. With communications down many ships had tried to reach the frigates but were shot down, now she and five others were rushing towards the moon. Behind them there were five enemy ships in pursuit, their weapons both energy and projectile, blazing away into them. The Alani's barriers were reduced to twenty percent already thanks to constant bombardment from the enemy guns and the enemy would not let up, even when the Alani was weaving to avoid the energy beams. One ship was not as lucky however as an energy beam shredded half of the ship.

"How long!" Inala yelled to her helmsman as she held on to the railing as the ship shook.

Another explosion and two ships had gone down.

"Ten more kilometres captain!"

Another ship was destroyed. They were alone. Inala prayed to the spirit of her fleet to give them just a bit more time, just a few more seconds..

"We're here!" As he said that the helmsman fell to the floor as round impacted against the hull, the alarms and sense of panic increased. Captain Inala prayed once more that their sacrifice was worth it.

Seconds later the Alani exploded under the constant fire of the enemy rail guns, but the frigates saw it and jumped to action.

–

–

_**OSS Gaul 1st Fleet flagship carrier Alesia**_

Victory was assured, the enemy fleet were being chased down and destroyed by the light battleships in the 'bowl', a confined space where the fighting was going on. The enemy ships were manoeuvring inside this because going outside would mean being shot down by the main battleships who patrolled the outside of the bowl and kept the enemy weapons and comms down. Watching from the Alesia Benoit could see the numbers of the enemy ships whittling down minute by minute. From two hundred and sixty ships at the beginning of the battle the enemy were down to one hundred.

He received a shock however as a light battleship group, who were chasing down five fleeing enemy that was part of a larger group who tried to break out, suddenly disappear from the Alesia sensors. He was even more shocked however at what the Alesia detected next.

"Sir numerous enemy vessels have come out from the planets moon!" The Alesia's sensory officer yelled.

"Damn! I did not expect that" Benoit yelled in frustration. "Get the Alesia and the main battleships to intercept them and send the message to the most senior of the lightie Captains, tell them the news and have him take command"

Her XO found the most experienced wolf pack captain, one Joseph Ruthford, and relayed the news. The captains face appeared on a holoscreen "Go ahead sir, we'll take care of these boys" He gave a salute and signed off.

The Alesia and the main battleships moved away from the bowl and turned to engage the fast approaching enemy, thankfully these seemed to be of a weaker class of ships than what they had been fighting. Benoit hoped that they could deal with them quickly and go back to help the light battleships.

"Form a firing line and give it to them hard"

The human ships did as ordered and once in position started shooting down the approaching enemy. Missiles from the main battleships headed straight for the Turian frigates and by now the AI's had once again cut the comms and defences. The missiles hit with devastating effect, utterly crushing the first wave. When the enemy reached weapons range and started firing the AI's switched their focus to disable the weapons, however the numbers of the enemy meant that some could still use their weapons. The AI of a single battleship could at best affect two ships and the Alesia five. Eighty main battleships and one Carrier against three hundred frigates seemed futile, however one hundred and sixty five of those enemy ships were useless.

The Alesia had another advantage as well, it's one thousand eight hundred MCA's who were now leaving their Carrier to strike at the enemy. It was now the enemy who was outnumbered.

–

–

_**Turian 51st Legion **_

The 51st Legion were not novices, they were combat tested and though not as experienced as other Legions they had their fair share of battle. One major engagements with the Batarian's and their allies in the Batarian War five years ago and numerous search and destroy missions against pirates gave the 51st a good reputation for getting the job done. However they did not face a force like the one they faced now.

General Nelius Poscii and the 51st could not have been less prepared than they were now. They believed the Navy could deal with any invader and so took this time to take a break, however when the Admiral reported to him that the enemy were going to invade the planet Nelius could not believe it at first. When he saw that the Admral was not making some sort of sick joke he had told his men to gear up and get ready for battle. The plan was to fight a mobile battle on the plains outside the city, first an armoured strike would attack in three directions while the enemy were unloading and air fighters were to bomb and strafe the enemy positions. Then the infantry would come in and rip apart a devastated enemy. The Legion was in full strength at 20,000 troops and all war machines operational, they could wipe this enemy out quickly and effectively before they had a chance to fight back Nelius told the Admiral. How wrong he was.

The enemy had deployed weapons they had no defence against. First it was the orbital missiles that somehow deprived anything and everything of electricity, their mechs and vehicles stopped, the fighters in the air had to crash land, their heavy weapons were fried along with ammo upgrades and omni-tools, basically anything that required electricity stopped working**(1)**. Then when the bulk of the Legion, 12,000 troops, engaged the enemy on the outskirts of the city the aliens utilised energy weapons that made their kinetic barriers ineffective. Worse still was the fact that the enemy was well trained and severely outnumbered them.

The fight in and around the outskirts was hard fought, the 51st using their Vindicator battle rifles in their most basic forms with no upgrades or even aiming assists. However no matter how hard the Turian soldiers fought the enemy was simply too overwhelming to hold back and they paid the price, eight thousand dead or wounded and the rest falling back and setting ambushes, ambushes that were almost always discovered. The enemy infantry advanced with armour, air and what could only be described as large mechs for support. There were even sightings of enemy sniper teams from their own snipers. Snipers that, most of the time, did not last long after they spotted their enemy counterparts. Those that did survive and got off a shot were horrified to find that even well placed headshots did not kill, the shot knocked them down only for the enemy to get up again, albeit slowly. So far there was no confirmed kills. It seemed to them that the enemy was unstoppable.

–

–

_**Boetia Spaceport**_

Legionnaire Sunal Kisa could not help but panic a bit. Like most of his comrades he was confident of victory, and now like most of his comrades still alive he was utterly frightened. Turian military doctrine said that you do not panic, you do not fear, you steady yourself and keep calm and fight on, even when falling back. The word 'retreat' did not exist in most Turian text and was even banned to use in the military. Turians do not retreat. However the makers of the Turian doctrine did not encounter these...aliens. They moved with unrelenting speed and seemingly had the ability to see anywhere, there was no cover from which to spring an ambush and their weapons made cover redundant anyway. The composite ceramic plates of Turian armour could only stop two shots before melting away, the third shot burning through skin and causing horrendous injuries.

It was a horrid feeling, Sunal noted, that your armour is just dead weight when facing this kind of enemy. Sunal was not part of the first engagement, he and the rest of the soldiers were to secure the civilians in the administrative building, HQ and anywhere else where they could be easily defended. He had been told of the enemies capabilities by other Legionaries who came back from the outskirts alive and had even seen some of the wounds caused by the enemy.

When the first engagement ended and eight thousand lied dead, wounded or taken prisoner the Legion had called for any volunteers. Thankfully most civilians were Turians who had undergone boot camp and had some experience in combat, there were even some Asari who, while not as trained or experienced as the Turians, could still provide biotic support. So far this militia, numbering 30,000 of the 50,000 civilian population, had yet so see combat but now with the enemy advancing so fast Sunal and his cohort of a thousand were to defend the spaceport along with two other cohorts and ten thousand militia.

Machine gun nests and defensive barriers were erected and the defenders did as much as they could to make the spaceport a fortress, however there was still that ever present feeling of fear and uncertainty present. It was made even worse by the fact that they could not use comms to check what was happening, important messages were delivered by runners.

Sunal and his team were stationed at the entrance of the building along with a few others, Legionaries and militia. Sunal looked to his side and could see a young Asari, no more than a hundred and fifty years old, shaking and trying to steady her rifle on the makeshift barrier they built. He moved over to her and she flinched and whirled around and pointed her weapon at him when he tapped her on the shoulder. Her eyes were wide in fear and surprise but she relaxed upon seeing it was a Turian.

"Your holding it wrong, here.." He showed her how to properly grip the weapon and she seemed to calm down somewhat. "Your best weapon is your biotics, hit them as hard as you can with that" The Asari nodded.

When Sunal was about to return to his post he was stopped by the Asari "Im Mara, Mara Krill"

Sunal nodded towards her "Sunal Kisa"

She swallowed and turned back to watching the entrance. "We'll get through this fine Mara, I promise you" That seemed to give her some confidence and her shaking stopped.

There was a few more minutes of tense waiting before a Turian runner came through the thick glass doors, having to be left open because there was no power to close it. "The enemy is here, get ready!"

As the Runner went back out the sound of weapons fire could be heard. The triple 'bang' of Vindicator fire along with a different noise that sounded like energy discharging. Then the screams and shouts came in as rounds burned through armour and into flesh. Moments later a group of Turian survivors along with an officer ran through the doors, carrying wounded.

Moments later numerous round objects rolled through the doors before bursting and spraying thick smoke everywhere. Sunal could not even see the doors anymore. Then blue balls came speeding in and impacted the barriers with a fizzle, burning it away with every shot. The less experienced members of the militia kept pulling the trigger and sprayed fire into the smoke with no visible effect. Then came more of the round objects, arcing over the barriers and exploding above or behind the people taking cover behind it. The explosive concussion Sunal felt was intense, it felt like his insides were shaking, some even clutched their stomachs in pain because of it.

Next to him Sunal could hear the fire coming from Mara's rifle, she was shooting into the thick smoke like most of the militia, the Turian Legionaries trying their best to get them to stop and conserve thermal clips. Sunal yelled for Mara to stop, at first she didn't hear and Sunal yelled louder, this time she heard him and stopped firing. To Sunal's left side his fellow Legionnaire popped his head above the barrier to see what was going on, it was a horrid mistake however as the top part of the Turian's head blew open and his body fell back.

Two machine guns, set up a safe distance on an elevated platform on either side of Sunal, had opened fire on the smoke and the blue fire noticeably lessened.

"Fall back! Get to the secondary defence lines!" The order rang out from the Centurion in charge. Sunal and those still able to move dragged the wounded back to the secondary lines under the cover of the machine guns. However as some people got up they dropped back down with their heads either having a large hole in it or one half of their head was blown off. The rest of the troops either ran for it or crawled further into the space port.

–

–

_**Main administrative building**_

The Council house was designed to be hard to attack, like all important buildings in the city. On top were anti-air guns protected by domed turrets, machine gun bunkers and even a small scale GARDIAN array to destroy aircraft and missiles. The building walls were made of a composite of materials that was effective at resisting damage from any weapon. There was a wide empty field around the Council house extending for at least one hundred meters in each direction and the buildings near the Council house were no higher than two stories.

Inside the layout also helped with defence, it was a grid with the corridors dividing rooms that were laid out four rooms across and four rooms down, the rooms were also large and spacious. It was the standard for all floors. The corridors could be turned into lethal mazes by closing the thick doors with turrets on either side and forcing the enemy to go one way. On the second floor were the main offices and working spaces and these too were easily defensible with the fold-up dividers being able to act as effective barriers against projectiles and grenade shrapnel, there were more turrets here as well. The third floor was much the same. The fourth floor contained armouries stockpiled with LOKI 2 mechs, battle rifles and missile launchers. Even medium class combat armour was available. All these weapons could be lowered to the lower floors using small elevators within the armouries. The fifth floor was a storage room for supplies, enough medicine and food to last thirty days. These too could be spread throughout the lower floors by small elevators. The windows could be sealed with composite plating with firing holes for snipers.

Most of these defences, no matter how effective, were rendered completely null by the lack of electricity caused by the enemy missiles. The turrets, launcher targeting systems, automatic doors, AA guns and anything requiring electricity shut down.

Inside were three thousand Legionaries and eight thousand militia. Although without power the Council house was not completely vulnerable.

Militiawoman Durbasa along with her neighbours and friends looked outside the thick windows to see the enemy had taken up positions along the buildings and had surrounded the Council house. The enemy aircraft and giant mechs were circling the building but yet not firing. It was strange that the enemy, although they had the ability to do so, did not randomly destroy their city or bombard places like the Council house where there were large concentrations of people. These were very strange alien invaders but no one was complaining.

Suddenly floating war machines most likely using anti-gravity technology, technology that was in the testing stages in Citadel space, could be seen behind the lines of enemy soldiers moving up front. One of the machines moved forward within twenty meters of the Council house and shocked everybody inside with what it did next.

"All combatants within the building, surrender now and you and everyone else inside will be treated well. I repeat, all combatants are asked to surrender! No shots need to be fired! Please surrender peacefully!"

There was silence. The shock of the aliens knowing the standard Galactic language used in all Citadel space had changed the atmosphere completely. However the silence did not last long as the lead Centurion stood up from the top of the building and, with a voice magnifier, spoke to the aliens.

"Turians do not surrender! We will fight on!"

"Look around you! You are surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned, you have no chance!"

"Turians do not surrender!"

"Consider the people inside! You will be ordering them to die when they can live!"

"They will die fighting for their planet and freedom rather than living under occupation!"

"We will negotiate with your Council to have you relocated! During that time you will be treated well, there will be no misconduct from us! We swear!"

Centurion Lovi was divided. Turian doctrine told him to fight on and hope for reinforcements but he knew it was futile, he wanted to save his people from being taken as prisoners of war but he did not know if he could trust these invaders. The fact that the enemy did not level the city gave him hope that these aliens were civilised and honourable beings but he was faced with a difficult decision.

"As much as I would like to die a heroic death I do not want to drag others to death with me, I say we swallow our pride and surrender, hope for the best" One of the Centurions told him. The other seemed to be conflicted but Lovi could see she too wanted to save the lives of those inside.

"Yadona?" He asked,

The woman closer her eyes before nodding "Surrender" she said quietly.

Lovi took a deep breath to calm his nerves and told himself again and again he was making the right decision. "We will surrender"

* * *

AN:

Yay, another chapter done. As always please review to tell me what you think or if you have any issues!


	8. Invasion pt3

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**OSS Gaul 1st Fleet flagship Alesia**_

The Turians were getting smarter. Three main battleships were taken down by groups of the frigates when they found out that disruptor torpedoes could easily drain the human ships shields. Those that could communicate and fight did so and formed ten strong groups and picked single targets. In response Benoit ordered the battleships to tighten together and form a 'ball' firing outwards. The Gallic naval commander realised that he could not tie down AI's that were desperately needed so he changed focus and told the AI to disable the enemy ship engines one by one. This however meant that more of the enemy could join in the fight.

The MCA's were performing admirably but they were taking casualties from the enemy point defences, to increase their chances to destroy enemy ships the MCA commander ordered squadrons to form up with each other in combat groups of no less than fifty against one enemy ship. This increased the kill rate but the MCA were still taking losses.

"The Rapier has been taken out!" Claudia reported to her captain.

_Damn! _Benoit thought to himself, trying to outwardly show composure. "Tell the ships to not expose themselves and if their shields go down beyond forty percent to take cover behind the others"

The battle would last longer than Benoit wanted. However he could rely on the AI's to quickly do their jobs and disable the enemy ships as they were doing now. Those disabled ships were pounced on by MCA battle groups or were shot down by the Ion cannons of the battleships. The enemies greatest asset, their speed and flexibility, would be crippled. The battle needed to be won and won quickly to achieve the shock and awe needed to force peace, and also because the generators of the main battleships only allowed for a full twenty hour engagement before the Ion cannons were out of power.

What Benoit didnt know however was that the cavalry was riding in...

–

–

_**OSS Roman**_

Lord Admiral Alexis was talking to the Admiral of the recently arrived New Kronshtadt 1st Fleet. Admiral Nikov Kalashni was a well learned commander, having been taught by his father and mother who were both involved in the 5th Station War, Nikov himself having combat experience fighting against militarised OSS's. He was well respected, which was why he and the New Kronshtadt 1st Fleet were usually the ones sent in by the CISS to deal with a situation.

The New Kronshtadt 1st Fleet was composed of one Carrier, one hundred main battleships and fifty light battleships.

Unlike the OSS Gaul or OSS Roman the OSS New Kronshtadt was not militarized and preferred the use of projectile weaponry. Tzarina Roksana was a new fifth generation type one Titan Munitions Carrier. Two thousand two hundred meters long, it was armed with two mass projectile cannons that fired thirty kilogram slugs and three dual rail guns. Titan fifth generation armour and Aegis fifth generation shielding protected the Carrier against a whole array of weapons. On board were three dedicated attack AI's, two dedicated defence AI's and two management AI's and the MCA bays could hold one thousand five hundred spacefighting MCA's.

The main battleships were also manufactured by Titan Munitions. They were fourth generation type three, excelling at medium to long range. The battleship was armed with one large mass projectile cannon, two smaller mass projectile cannons and two dual rail guns as well as eighty Longbow missiles. Fourth generation type four Aegis shielding covered the ship.

The light battleships were Global Armaments fourth generation type five, armaments were; one small mass projectile cannon and five dual rail cannons. Missiles were dropped for increased ammunition. It had fourth generation type one Aegis shielding.

Alexis saluted in respect for the older man "Admiral"

Nikov returned the salute "Lord Admiral, I hear you have a situation. Care to tell me about it?" The man asked with a noticeable Russian accent.

"We were attacked without good cause by unknown aliens who call themselves the Turians some time after we activated the Astral Gate, after they attacked twice we launched our invasion to show them we are not to be trifled with"

Nikov nodded. The reaction was to be expected from a militarised OSS, none of them wanted a weak reputation and the chance to gain combat experience and renown was rarely turned down. If the OSS Roman and Gaul gained victory then they would have the honour, at least to militarized OSS's, of being the first to wage war with a hostile alien race and win. Not to mention since it was the OSS Roman that activated the Astral Gate they were now the legal owners of it and could charge for it's use. A base on either end of the Gate would secure this position and Nikov was certain that many kinds of people would pay to travel to unexplored space. In short the OSS Roman had hit a goldmine and Nikov wanted in.

"I would be willing to assist your forces Lord Admiral, but first we must agree on terms of payment"

Alexis immediately asserted control of the negotiations "Ten percent of the profits from the Astral Gate for eighty main battleships and thirty light"

"Fifteen percent profit and thirty percent of the planet for seventy main and fifty light"

"Ten percent and an embassy for eighty main and fifteen light" Nikov could see the Lord Admiral would be nearly impossible to budge. The negotiations continued on for thirty minutes before the two could finally reach a decision.

"Fifteen percent and an embassy for eighty main and twenty light"

"Twelve percent and the embassy for eighty main and twenty five light, it's my final offer Admiral" The Lord Admiral said with resolution.

Nikov considered the offer for a moment before nodding.

"Deal"

–

–

_**Turian Dreadnought Archon**_

They were not prepared for this. They could not prepare for this. They never expected this. Turian dreadnoughts were not boarded, it was simply impossible. It only happened on holovideos. Yet, it did happen, and it was devestating. The Archon had first been the best hope of a Naval victory, inflicting the first casualties with ease. Then it fell victim to the same unknown weapon that disabled ships throughout the Fleet. Admiral Kering was horrified that the strongest weapon of the Turian military was disabled without even fighting back, when the vessel was boarded however he could have had a heart attack right there on the bridge.

Right now the ill prepared crew were doing their best to hold the enemy back but the crew did not have a lot of ground combat experience. Sure they trained and simulated boarding but not on a dreadnought, it was stupid to assume one could actually board a dreadnought so there was no need to train for it. Right now though, ensign Karil wished they did.

The enemy had taken the back end of the vessel and were working their way to the front with ferocious efficiency. Comms, internal sensors and other parts of the ship stopped responding to bridge controls, the elevators were unpredictable, working when the enemy used it yet not when the crew attempted to. Even the doors were acting the same as the elevators, forcing the crew to go a more dangerous rout or trapping them entirely. It was as if the ship itself had switched sides. It did not do well for the already shaky morale of the crew.

Karil sprayed the enemy down at the other end of the corridor with her M-12 submachine gun and was glad to see the aliens move into cover. Just as three of her comrades advanced one enemy came out with a shoulder mounted weapon and fired. One Turian managed to dive into a room, however the other two were disintegrated by the projectile, turning into a sickly blue mush on the floor. Karil was about to provide suppressive fire but the enemy had opened up with heavy weapons of some sort that was pouring large amounts of plasma fire at Karil and her unit.

The fire let up for a second and Karil risked a look around the corner to see the enemy had come closer, quickly along with the three crew members left in her unit she sprayed fire at them but received no confirmed kills, the aliens diving for cover in rooms or the spaces where terminals were built. Karil saw the barrel of a large gun before diving back into cover, yelling at the others to do the same. However one was too slow and blue balls of plasma burned away the armour at his left shoulder.

While his partner tended to him two white balls rolled by Karil's feet, she had barely a second to dive to the side before a blue explosion sprayed plasma over her unit, killing them all. Karil also suffered some burns on her legs and feet but she tried her best to ignore them, forcing herself to get up and run, throwing a timed disk grenade from her omni-tool as she did so.

When she rounded a corner she did not stop when she heard the explosion go off , instead hoped she killed a few of the enemy and kept pressing herself to run. Karil intended to link up with another unit on this level but with comms down she she did not know if they were still there, she desperately hoped they were.

–

–

_**Boetia Spaceport**_

They had lost the terminals, most of the landing and docking bays and were barely holding on to the top half of the control tower. The enemies advance was relentless but they had held the line well, being able to say they inflicted casualties on the enemy. Thankfully the armour superiority the enemy so enjoyed counted for nothing here, here the Legionnaires and militia had a chance, no matter how small. The fact that they enemy could die gave them hope and shattered the fears that these were invincible, super powered aliens. They were still aliens, but now the defenders knew that they could die. It took a lot of firepower in the right place but it gave hope, and hope was what was needed. Along with reinforcements.

Sunal was now the a Decanus, having been promoted due to the deaths of many officers. He commanded several units ramshackled together and labelled a combat group. He was defending the two stairways that led to the upper level of the control tower, machine guns had been set up with interlocking fields of fire and barriers were erected. Surprisingly Mara had made the first kill, using her biotics to throw an enemy soldier against a wall who did not get back up, though the body was dragged away by the soldiers comrades so they could not be sure if it was dead.

They learned that while they could no little against the smoke they thought they could defend themselves against the enemies grenades, they made makeshift shields from any flat surface and there would be people assigned on every barricade who's job it was to block the explosives from going behind them. It seemed to work at first but then the enemy seemed to be able to time their grenades to explode on and destroy the shield, as well as cause people's insides to ripple due to the force of the explosion.

"Sunal, their coming" Mara alerted him.

The Decanus nodded and told his units to get ready, himself taking cover behind a barrier. The very familiar sound of the 'tink pffff' of the enemy smoke grenades heralded the begging of the attack and soon mass accelerated projectiles and blue plasma balls filled the purposely empty distance between Sunal's defenders and the attackers. The enemy gradually poured in more and more rounds, deploying what Sunal assumed to be heavier weapons.

Suddenly, from out of the smoke, a missile had come streaking right into one of the machine guns. It completely disintegrated the gun and the man behind it into a blue mushy substance. Another missile came, destroying another machine gun. Then the attackers threw more grenades and, like some sort of evil spirit, the enemy charged out of the smoke, shouting their loud war cries. The aliens either had naturally loud voice boxes or they amplified the sound because every time Sunal heard it his ears would ache, followed by his head. Some of his troops had even gone partly deaf because of the sound.

The enemy came in, the colour of their armour matching that of the walls and floor. His troops and remaining machine guns opened fire but most were still trying to recover from the shock waves from the grenades. Quickly the enemy closed in and the fighting turned into a melee that the militia was not ready for. His troops tried to hold their ground, using their hands, talons or anything that could be used to injure an enemy like their rifles. However despite their tenacity the enemy were simply too strong and well armed, using small side arms in conjunction with fists or lethal knives to kill the defenders.

Before any more losses could be taken Sunal ordered his soldiers to fall back into another defensive line. Units took turns providing covering fire and falling back, though the defenders did their best to make themselves as hard to hit the enemy still got some of them. Shots of blue slammed into armour, burning it away and revealing the flesh underneath. People screamed and fell as they were hit in the exposed spots and the smell of burning flesh perforated the air.

Sunal was sure there were shrpshooters within the enemy as a few of his troops fell down dead, half of their heads missing. Sometimes the lucky ones would loose a limb, other times their backs exploded and exposed the gruesome insides. Still, despite the horrid sights and sounds of battle he was proud that his troops, most of them militia, held themselves well, even Mara conducted herself like a solid Turian Legionary. The Asari used her natural biotic talent to launch the enemy soldiers into walls or to erect barriers to let her comrades escape, but Sunal could see she was tiring fast.

Mara could feel the entirety of her body ache and burn in pain, but she tried her hardest to push herself and cover her comrades while they fell back. An enemy soldier swiped at her with it's knife but she jumped back and before the alien could level it's side arm at her she pushed him away with a biotic wave. It flew back and slammed into some of it's comrades, dazed but unfortunately for her still alive.

"Mara go!"

She had barely heard the order from Sunal through the horrendous, ear splitting noise of the enemies war cry and the general sound of battle. She made to turn and run for the next level when she felt her world explode in pain, as she fell she screamed to the ground. Her left arm had been hit by an explosive round and the limb was blown from the shoulder, spraying blood at it did so. Mara lifted her head to see the rest of her fellow defenders had made it to the upper level. She still felt pain but she was tiring, the gaping wound was starting to feel like a horrible ache and her breathing was laboured. Before she passed out and died from blood loss she felt the pain in her shoulder numb down and the blood stop dripping, her last conscious effort was to look to her left and see an enemy soldier doing something to her wound, then she passed out.

–

–

_**2nd Astral Gate / Relay 314**_

Numerous ships exited the Astral Gate, bearing different colours and markings than the OSS Gaul or OSS Roman who had come before. A Fleet of eighty main battleships and twenty five light battleships plus a carrier had appeared, bearing the black and gold colours of the New Kronshtadt. Admiral Nikov Kalashni had brought his soldiers into battle.

Aboard the Tzarina Roksana Nikov listened to his helmswoman report the state of the battle. "Sir, the combined Fleet of Roman and Gaul are currently winning but the enemy is not going down fast enough. The Alesia and most of the battleships are fighting against superior numbers, most of the lights are dogfighting and the two Roman carriers are dealing with another group. They have already landed on the planet"

Nikov nodded "Take fifty main battleships and the Tzarina towards the Alesia, have the rest assist in the dogfighting then when their done help the Roman carriers"

With the orders given out the majority of the New Kronshtadt's 1st Fleet went into action.

* * *

AN:

With another chapter done the invasion will soon be drawing to a close. What happens then...

...No really, what does happen then?

Anyway, thank you for reading and thank you to all who reviewed, favourited or alerted this story! You are all great fans!

NOTE: Ive changed the rating to an M because it's getting a bit more gory.

anon Hmmm, that's an idea worth consideration. There is a strong chance on the Humans fighting the heretic Geth and possibly the Batarians as well. I have a rough idea for both situations already. Anyway, thank you for the review!


	9. Total Victory

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**Gallic 1st Fleet flagship Alesia**_

Three shots impacted the shields of the Alesia "Shields are down to seventy five percent" The helmsman said calmly. He had good reason to be calm, he was aboard one of the best vessels that was ever owned and fielded by a OSS.

A beeping in the sensory officers holographic console alerted her to incoming ships "Sir! Ships are coming!"

Benoit rounded on her, surprise laden on his face "What?"

"Their not enemy sir, their ID marks them as the New Kronshtadt 1st Fleet"

The Gallic man let out a sigh of relief "You scared me there Helene"

The sensory officer laughed "Sorry sir, anyway, their contacting us"

Benoit nodded to her and on the bridge holoprojector the face of Admiral Nikov Kalashni appeared. Benoit saluted out of respect for the man, even if they were of the same rank "Sir, welcome to the new frontier"

"I see you've already started the music without me, may I take this dance then?"

The Gallic commander nodded "It would be much appreciated sir"

The feed cut off and from behind the enemy the New Kronshtadt 1st Fleet appeared, coming out of a short hyperspace jump. To the enemy it must have seemed as if death just suddenly appeared without warning. There was a slight pause as the human ships diverted power from their hyperdrive to the rest of the ships. Then, the big guns on the main battleships and the carrier opened fire.

Large, thirty and fifteen kilogram slugs homed into the enemy vessels, piercing their shields and exploding on the ship hulls. The slugs were made of two parts, the secondary part was designed to break through enemy shields and break away, then the primary part filled with an explosive mixture would make contact with the enemy hull and explode, blowing a large hole in the target vessel.

The enemy was peppered with hundreds of slugs, completely destroying large groups of the frigate fleet. They were caught completely by surprise. Some tried to reform into battlegroups but these large groups were the main targets, some tried to pull back but the ships of the OSS Gaul and OSS Roman were there to stop them, the enemy were truly caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Sir, the enemy is contacting us" The comms officer alerted Benoit.

"Open a channel to the enemy and to Admiral Nikov and tell them to cease fire"

Two holoscreens appeared on the bridge, to the left was Admiral Nikov and to the right was the alien. This was the first time his crew had seen what these Turians actually looked like alive, the public were not privy to the fact that there were prisoners aboard their Station, only the most high ranked of the government even knew there were survivors of the first attack.

The alien was standing at around six feet, it had two long legs and arms and two proportionately long fingers and thumbs which ended in talons. They had avian features like small frontal eyes and a beak like mouth. It had a natural faceplate of some sort and the face seemed to be painted. The thing had a unnaturally wide collarbone, going around the shoulders and jutting out at the back. In all it was truly an alien.

"I am Captain commander Talos Lotan and I formally request to...Surrender" Benoit could see the difficulty the alien had in saying the last word, it must have hurt his pride. Benoit put on a stoic face, only a small nod indicating the acknowledgement.

He turned to Admiral Nikov, purposely deactivating the translators so the alien could not understand what was being said "Thank you admiral, it seemed you made them piss themselves"

The man laughed "We should accept, no need to gloat when you have all the power"

Benoit nodded and turned the translators back on "We accept your surrender, deactivate your ships and prepare to be boarded. Know if you do not comply we will destroy all of you"

–

–

_**Turian 51st Legion HQ**_

Lorak Alon was a Praetorian. The elite special unit of the 51st Legion. There were only five hundred of them in the Legion and they were the ones defending the military HQ. To be considered part of this elite was a near impossible task; you had to have served for twenty years, you had to pass boot camp with forty five of the fifty awards, you had to have experienced at least five major battles and you had to have been awarded fifteen 1st tier medals. Then if you had achieved that you were selected for the single most brutal training and examination program in the entire Citadel space. Only seven out of ten of the chosen candidates ever passed.

Lorak and one hundred his Praetorian comrades held the second level of the main HQ building, making the enemy pay dearly for every inch of ground lost. A hundred of his comrades had fought to the death in the first level and it made the enemy cautious in their advance. As long as they fought it bought time for the civilians on the sealed underground levels to escape along with normal Legionary escorts. The enemy, who once advanced with lightning speed through their city, were now being ground down in the halls of the HQ.

Although the Praetorians were heavily outnumbered and outgunned they held their ground to their dying breath, it was one of the tenants you had to swear as a Praetorian that if you were trapped you fought to the very end. No Praetorian would ever be captured alive.

A missile streaked into his cover, Lorak was quick enough to jump back and avoid being melted into mush. Immediately his comrades let loose with heavy machine gun fire into the smokescreen the enemy created and they heard a yell of pain. Lorak quickly moved to another piece of thick cover, firing in bursts to help with the suppression.

Suddenly three more missiles came out of the smoke and impacted against the cover the machine gunners used, the elite soldiers were turned into a blue mush in an instant. With their heavy weapons taken out the enemy poured in more rounds, some hitting home and scoring the armour of the Praetorians. The snipers of the Praetorians did their best to thin the numbers of the enemy and they met with some success, the volume of fire slackening slightly.

However the enemy did not let up and an ear splitting noise emerged. Round metal spheres were thrown and when they landed they exploded with gut shaking force, incapacitating even the elite Turians. A second wave of grenades came, this time when they exploded they spewed out plasma that burned away armour and skin, sometimes fusing the two together as the armour plating actually melted into the skin of the wearer.

Then came another wave of grenades but this time they were smoke, choking the Turians who had to hold their breaths or cover their faces so as not to breath it in. With the Turian elite blind, deaf and heavily crippled the attackers rushed in with their monomolecular combat knives and sidearms, some with shotguns in close hand to hand combat. Many of the Turians could not put up much of a fight, still trying to recover from the waves of grenades. They were mercilessly slaughtered.

Lorak could not hear, the enemies amplifies war cry having ruptured his ears but he could still stand and fight. An enemy soldier rushed up and him, swinging it's knife to cut his throat. Lorak jumped back and then fired a shot from his mass accelerated shotgun, the force of the shot blew the alien back and damaged it's shields, two more shots ended it's existence.

Lorak however left himself open to another soldier who was also armed with a shotgun, the soldier rushed at him and knocked the wind out of Lorak's lungs and forced him into the ground, just as Lorak was going to fire his weapon the creature stomped between his legs and crushed his vital organ. Lorak, elite soldier or not, screamed like a frightened child. The alien was not finished as it fired a round into his knee, completely blowing it apart and sending half the leg away. The Turian could only feel the greatest pain right now but it was still not over. The other knee was blown, spraying blue blood on the aliens armour. Lorak was far too much in pain and too weak to even scream any more.

The alien looked down at the mutilated Turian, visor less helmet hiding any emotion it might have had. It lifted it's weapon and pointed it at the Turians chest, then fired, ripping apart armour and flesh. It fired two more shots into the already dead corpse before it stomped on Lorak's head, squashing it and turning it into pulp.

–

–

_**Quarias Park **_

They had lost. They had fought valiantly but it was all in vain. The enemy were too strong and they too weak. It was an utter and complete defeat. What was worse though was that they did not fight on and die defending their world but they had lost their Turian nerve and surrendered. Of the original three thousand soldiers and ten thousand militia defending the spaceport there were only one hundred and seventy soldiers and two thousand militia left standing. They surrendered and were now being stripped of all weapons and moved to where the aliens had gathered the rest of the prisoners.

The inhabitants of Boetia expected their enemy to line them up and slaughter them or commit some other heinous deed. What happened though was the complete opposite. The medical personnel or "medics" as they were known treated everyone, even those who resisted treatment, fearing something might happen to them. They were given food, though to feed the Turian's search groups had to go out and scavenge from the city with civilians or militia as guides since "Human" food was not suitable for dextro-amino consumers.

_Human _Sunal wondered about his captors. He and most of the prisoners in the makeshift containment area in what was once Quarias Park were very confused and wary about these "Humans". A grenade had exploded by Sunal and the Turian suffered severe burns, he was quickly dragged by his supposed enemy and treated. Currently he was laying on a mat that was provided to him by the humans. They provided everybody with food, water and ways to generally keep comfortable. Though there were still hostile and fearful reactions towards the humans the fact that they treated them this well helped to calm the prisoners.

Sunal took a look around him and saw that the humans had done well to make this place inescapable, they were surrounded by the enemy armoured vehicles which seemed to use some kind of anti-gravity, technology that was only in it's infancy in Citadel space. Sunal also saw the large mech's the humans employed and decided then and there not to plan any sort of escape. Some had tried already but were quickly brought down with electric shocks and brought back, this time their hands and feet restrained.

What shocked Sunal more than anything though was the facial appearance of the humans. He had yet to see one's actual face and the only word he could find to describe them was "Alien". They had some striking similarities to the Asari like the two eyes, nose and lips. However that's where the similarities ended. These humans had some sort of unknown substance emerging out of their head and on some their faces. These 'growths' varied in length and colour though most of the humans had it short. Sunal did not know what these 'growths' were for, when he discussed it with other prisoners there were a few assumptions like a status symbol or an important part of their head, some even suggested they were used as a natural self defence weapon. **(1)**

The Turian Legionnaire sighed and tried to make himself as comfortable as possible, he was in for quite a wait.

–

–

_**Turian 51st Legion Military HQ**_

General Nelius Poscii stood atop the five story building, looking down at the numerous enemy below. Above him the enemies aircraft and giant mechs circled around, weapons clearly directed at him. He felt no fear though. He felt nothing, just a calming sooth. His Praetorians had valiantly defended the building, they believed that they were buying time for the civilians to escape. Nelius knew better though, the civilians did not have a tunnel to escape through. It was only a large storage basement and when his forces lost the first level the civilians were captured. The windows were manually sealed to prevent the enemy from firing in and so the soldiers inside did not see the line of civilians being lead out of the HQ.

In his hands Nelius held the heavy Carnax pistol given to him as a gift from his daughter when he made General. It was engraved with a simple "Father" on the side. The General was dressed in his full uniform armour, badges and other decorations pinned on his chest. The door to the top of the building burst open and he was quickly surrounded by the enemy soldiers.

"Put down your weapon and surrender!" One of them, most likely an officer, ordered him.

Nelius smiled and turned around "Now why would I do that?"

He lifted his weapon and fired one shot before being completely vaporised due to the amount of plasma rounds that hit him. The last bastion of resistance had fallen. A twelve foot flag was rolled down the Military HQ, the black eagle of the OSS Roman flying. The image was quickly broadcasted to every unit in the army and a great cheer rose out from the invaders.

Total victory had been achieved.

* * *

AN:

A bit rushed im sorry to say, I just wanted to end the invasion. As always thanks for reading and please review to tell me what you think or if you have a probelm.

**(1) Of all the races in the Mass Effect universe Humans are the only ones I saw that have hair...**


	10. Peace or War?

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**OSS Roman Battleship Dancer Cell A**_

Admiral Kering sat on the thin mattress inside the cell. About an hour ago he had been trying to get the Archon to self-destruct but to no avail, the enemy had completely taken over the ship using unknown means and had cut off all access so he could not get into the system. He was captured along with some of the remaining crew a short while afterwards.

He sat in the chilly cell and thought of ways to make the situation turn to his favour, however he knew it was a naïve thing to do. The enemy had completely defeated them and they had Boetia completely at their mercy. Kering hoped these aliens knew what that word meant.

–

–

_**OSS Roman**_

Lord Admiral Alexis Josephine Heather was proud. The OSS Roman and OSS Gaul were now in orbit around the conquered planet of Boetia and the Lord Admiral could see the very first truly alien world. It had three continents separated by water, the largest one holding the main city and smaller towns was on the eastern hemisphere, the second largest to the western hemisphere was connected by a small strip of land and the third was a thin island to the southern hemisphere. There seemed to be other small islands scattered on the oceans.

Alexis was proud because they had achieved a very important victory. In just about six hours they had swept in and destroyed an enemy Fleet that outnumbered them and conquered a planet. Though she was saddened by the losses she was glad that it had totalled to only eight thousand deaths. On the ground five hundred and fifty two soldiers had been killed with another four hundred and thirty wounded. In space they had lost six main battleships, eight hundred MCA's and twelve light battleships. Though these losses could be replaced the experience of the crew could not.

With the events of the past few days the OSS Roman and their ally OSS Gaul found themselves in a very advantageous position. Soon others would follow, all seeking to pass through the relay and into new space and they would all be paying for the opportunity. Soon they would be talking to the Council and it would be the OSS Roman that represented humanity. This victory had won them riches, renown and more importantly, symbolism. OSS Roman and OSS Gaul ventured into hostile alien space as the striking arm of Humanity, delivering victory to a short war that the violet aliens started. The media would be in a frenzy. Though Alexis knew that the Council might not react the way she wanted it to the Lord Admiral still held confidence in her heart that this war would end before it turned into a war of attrition.

"Lord Admiral, the Lord General is contacting you"

Alexis nodded to patch him through, in her office within the military HQ a holoscreen appeared with the face of the Lord General "Luke"

Luke saluted "The main city has been captured and all resistance put down, we're now in the process of treating the wounded, securing strongpoints and taking all armaments. You should get down here sometime, they have some great stuff"

Alexis laughed "Soon enough, but first I have to deal with the universal impact of this. The media and the League of Companies will come knocking on the door soon enough, then the other factions of Humanity will want a piece of this"

"Hm, how likely is it that some of our...enemies might try and seize this moment to attack?"

"They wont, the publicity we gain from this will make us heroes, the defenders of humanity, to those who matter anyway"

The Lord General nodded "Well, I trust your judgement in this. When should we contact the Council?"

"A message had already been delivered, now we wait to see what happens"

–

–

_**Citadel council chambers**_

The atmosphere was tense within the room. Just minutes ago the three councillors had been in a heated argument about what they should do with the "invaders". Councillor Savaros expected his colleagues to support the Hierarchy in a full scale war but he was surprised and shocked that they did not. Councillor Losana had stood firm in her belief that war could be avoided by peace talks, the fact that the "Humans" contacted them requesting to negotiate gave hope for success. Councillor Ledra, while initially believing this race to be incapable of negotiation had supported the idea when they actually contacted them for talks.

All three had been adversely affected by the fact that three Turian fleets and a dreadnought had been swept aside. Savaros was angered, he and the Turian Hierarchy could not accept this defeat, their pride in being the best military in the known universe would not let them accept peace without completely destroying the Human military. Councillors Savaros and Ledra were shocked and horrified, though they did well to hide it. Both feared the prospect of all out war with such an enemy, the traumatic events of the Rachni War being on the forefront of their minds.

"Turian lives have been lost and an entire planet conquered, we must mobilise for war!" Though Savaros did not yell the other Councillors could feel the intensity behind those words.

"Councillor Savaros, this enemy had swept aside three Fleets and an experienced Legion with unknown technology and unknown methods. Now they want to talk, I and Councillor Ledra cannot pass up this opportunity"

The Salarian nodded "Remember they have taken prisoners and while the images attached with the message is a questionable source the city and the prisoners seem to be in good health. If that is true then this indicates that these Humans are sincere about negotiating"

Councillor Savarus knew he was outvoted, no matter how much he argued.

–

–

_**Quarias Park Medical IFV**_

Mara groggily awoke to the noise of machines and a feeling of numbness on her left arm. At first she tried to make sense of it all, last she remembered she should have died from blood loss but she was alive. She tried to sit up but she found she could only mover her right arm, she looked at her left arm, or what was left of it, as she felt her heart drop. Her left arm was just a stump and it was at this moment that the situation truly dawned on her.

"By the goddess"

One of the alien invaders turned to look at her and she was shocked to actually see the face of one without it's helmet on. Before she could study the face the alien went over to her and Mara started panicking, thinking the worst might happen to her.

"Please calm down ma'am, we wont hurt you" One of the aliens, most likely a female due to the voice and the closer resemblance to the face of an Asari, tried to calm her down. Mara stopped struggling but her heart was still beating in fear and panic.

"Ma'am, we need you to calm down. I promise we wont do anything" The way the alien said it, with a calming voice and a truthful smile made Mara calm slightly. However, the state of her arm still made it hard to calm down. The alien seemed to notice and surprised the Asari at what it said "We can make a prosthetic arm for you ma'am, you dont need to worry about that"

Eyed wide she asked in a croaky voice "Really?...Wh..why?"

The alien smiled kindly again "Because we swore an oath ma'am to give care to all people"

The Asari maiden could only sit there in shock and hope they were being truthful.

–

–

_**Former Turian 51st Legion HQ**_

The dead bodies of the Turian soldiers were being dragged out and placed in neat orderly rows. _The alien bastards fought hard_ Squad captain Terrance Hall thought to himself as he dragged a dead Turian missing it's leg in line with other dead bodies, most mutilated. The HQ was hard fought and many good Roman soldiers had died trying to take it, Terrance accurately assumed that these were some sort of special unit within the alien army.

He took a look around at the other soldiers doing some task or another like sorting the bodies or moving the alien's equipment into waiting Hawks, those weapons and equipment would be taken back to the station for study and as spoils of war.

Terrance himself had taken a heavy looking pistol from a dead Turian who looked like a commander since it's armour had a distinct design to it that separated it from the others. His squad, who thankfully survived with some minor injuries, had taken their own rewards. The heavy trooper Marcus an intact Turian helmet, the other heavy Sabrina had taken some badges and strips she found in one of the rooms and had attached them to her shoulder. Some had taken small arms like rifles and shotguns, some took pieces of armour like shoulder pads and some had even taken missile's or the missile launchers themselves.

There were however some objects they were prohibited from taking like the deactivated omni-tools as they were called, these would be researched and most likely adapted and mass produced if what intel had told them about the objects held true.

"These things were tough" Marcus commented

Terrance nodded in agreement, they had to engage in tough close combat fighting to dislodge the enemy who simply would not retreat. If the EMP didnt work or the enemy had a defence against it, well, they would most likely had have to bombard the building, civilians casualties be damned. The lives of the soldiers comes first and foremost.

"Some nice souvenirs though" Sabrina said as she checked out some of the badges in her hand.

"Careful not to show it around the locals, they might react badly" Terrance warned them.

Sabrina nodded and wrapped the medals in a piece of fabric, the others doing their best to conceal their prizes. When all the dead had been brought out the building, as well as the Turian dead, were fully stripped of anything that looked useful or interesting.

–

_**Unknown vessel**_

Matriarch Asira was understandably nervous,though she did not outwardly show it . A short while ago the Council had arranged for her to be the negotiator, a task she had trained for and had been doing for quite some time but not to this scale. "My words could save or end countless lives" Asira whispered to herself, trying to calm her nerves.

"We trust you Matriarch" The captain of the commando squad apparently heard her.

As a security precaution five experienced Asari commandos had gone with her, they were using the stealth ships used by the Asari special forces in case the aliens laid a trap and they needed to escape quickly.

"We're coming out of FTL now Matriarch" The pilot alerted them.

When they exited FTL travel they were utterly shocked at what they found. The enemy possessed a large number of ships that were larger than dreadnoughts and they could see at least five ships twice the size. There were a larger number of smaller ships as well, about Cruiser size. What was more shocking and awe striking though were the two huge space stations, one much larger than the other, both orbiting the planet.

"By the goddess..." The delegation were clearly affected by the sights.

A beeping noise on the pilot's console alerted them to an incoming transition "Their contcting us ma'am"

The Matriarch nodded for her to open a channel, a holoscreen appeared letting the delegation see what they were dealing with. They were definitely alien, though it was surprising to see they shared similar features to the Asari. "Please remain where you are and wait for one of our ships to retrieve you" The video feed cut off.

"That was...a human?" one of the commandos asked

Asira nodded "Now, we wait"

–

–

_**OSS Roman**_

"The alien ship has docked in docking bay twelve Lord Admiral"

Alexis nodded, she was dressed in her ceremonial armour. It was white and on abdomen was the black eagle of OSS Roman, her shoulder pads had the red laurel wreath and on her chest were the medals and other awards she had collected in her career. The armour's heels made her stand taller than she already was, an intimidating six foot nine inches, adding to the intimidation was her helmet, it was styled to look like a Roman cavalry mask from the ancient times and matched the colour of her armour.

The Lord Admiral made her way to the meeting room she had designated to the soldiers escorting the delegation. She had arrived first and with two guards waited for the delegation. Soon enough the six of them arrived, all Asari, though there was clearly one who stood above them all. It...She held herself with dignity born out of years of experience and did not show any sign of being intimidated, Alexis looked right into the eyes of the alien and she looked right back. The Lord Admiral knew right then that this would be a very interesting talk.

* * *

AN:

This really is just a filler chapter to get some progress going. As always review and tell me what you think.

Im really in a bind right now, I dont actually know how to go forward with this. My first plan was just...I dont know, I think it was to integrate humanity into the wider galactic community. I dreamed up that some militarised OSS's, who spoil for fights that give them rewards, would go into the Terminus systems to do just that. I planned that Humanity would explore and populate the Traverse. I planned some other things as well but now im divided, as far as I can see I have some options:

-Go ahead with my original plan and have humanity expand it's power, there would be no Shepard.

-Ignore the 100 year difference between the game and this story and have Shepard do his mission in my own way and have him the focus of the story

-I could do both, ignore the 100 year difference and have humanity expand and Shepard do his mission in my own way. The focus would be mixed between the two and they would blend with each other sometimes. Im kinda leaning towards this at the moment.

Im gunna take some while to think about this so updates might not be coming as fast. Or I could make up my mind quickly and update soon...I dont know yet.

The Wealthy Barber: It was actually you, and some others, that made me think about the direction of the story so thanks for your review! It's really good to get suggestions and see from another perspective.


	11. 30 Years

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

**CoE: **Coalition of Earth

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**30 years after the First Contact War(FCW)**_

It was the year 2287 BCE and Humanity, though still a divided species, had established itself as one of the great powers of the known Universe. The end result of the FCW was that Humanity, to the rest of the galaxy, was a great military power, greater than even that of the Turians and that they should not be antagonised. Most species initially believed that humans were violent and aggressive however those opinions quickly lessened as Humanity shipped in it's vast diversity of cultures and societies to the rest of the galaxy. The majority now saw Humans as a diverse species, not only in culture but in genetic diversity as well, and not one to be generalised. They saw the varied societies and cultures of the many OSS's, the nations and colonies of the Earth Coalition and the Cities and colonies of the Martians.

Humanity had also rapidly expanded in what some called the Age of Exploration and Colonisation. The Coalition of Earth or CoE, now an established government representing Earth and it's colonies, expanded into the Attican Traverse, the frontier of Citadel space. They were followed by the UCM and numerous OSS's. There the Humans established themselves as a power, fighting off pirates from the Terminus Systems and sometimes even each other for control of rich planets and other resources.

Humanity also showed it's power in the Terminus systems. Hearing the reputation of the Systems many militarised OSS's travelled there and established their presence. Their purpose there was defined by Kaiser Stephanie Jager of the OSS Krieg "Here, deep in the thriving heart of lawlessness, of corruption and of violence, we wage war on anyone we damn well please". The Terminus Systems was the perfect place for militarised OSS's, mainly because it had resources worth fighting over and it had many enemies to fight. It suited the militarised OSS's pursuit of renown and riches.

Human technology had been introduced to Citadel Space by the League of Companies. The League as they were more commonly known to Humans was made up of the major companies who design and produce all kinds products. They introduced many new products and technologies, although most things military were very restricted and tightly controlled. The introduction of Hyperdrive technology had revolutionised space travel for the Citadel races, they no longer had to discharge drives and Hyperspace jumps allowed for faster travel than the old FTL drives. Citadel technology had also been introduced to Humans and there were some advancements made due to Mass Effect technology. For example using mass effect fields in combination of anti gravity gave birth to soldiers who would become known as "Jumpers". They would dive from space or sky and use mass effect fields to reduce their mass, this lets them deploy portable anti-gravity technology to soften their landing.

Despite their growing strength the Council could not accept Humanity as a member of the Citadel Races since it was not represented by one governing body. Instead they were allies with all three factions. Though it mattered little since few humans wanted acceptance as a Citadel Race, it would mean listening to Council laws and sacrificing some of the freedoms and advantages humanity enjoyed.

For example the extensive use of AI's by humans horrified the Council and they demanded they stop using and producing AI's. The Humans, who always had good relations with what they viewed as their creations, absolutely refused. AI's were central in many aspects of human life and they would not relinquish them. The Council also demanded the resizing and limiting of Human ships because the power of the Carriers and main battleships were equal or greater than a dreadnought. Once again the humans refused, though the Council did provoke a reaction from the CISS.

The CISS called on all OSS's to participate in building a show of power. Thousands of OSS's answered the call and in one year the greatest piece of Human engineering had been produced. The OSS Terra was the largest Orbital Space Station ever built, it could hold up to 2.5 million people**(1)** and possessed the most advanced technologies humanity had to offer. It's one hundred and forty habitation rings were protected by seventh generation Aegis shielding and countless defence weapons. Long and short range Ion cannons, large and small mass accelerated projectile artillery, dual rail cannons, missile pods and point defence lasers. This monstrosity was parked right next to the Citadel and, though not as large as the Citadel, it stood as a reminder of the power of Humanity when provoked. The Council never again tried to force an issue.

There still were some other problems however. The Turians were bitter about the results of the FCW, many Turian lives were lost, a Turian planet was taken and never given back and the pride in being the most powerful military in the known universe was shattered. Most of the galactic community were on the side of the Turians. For their part Humanity had mixed reactions to the FCW, some believed that the Turians brought it upon themselves when they opened fire on one of the most renown militarised OSS's in human history. Some believed that the OSS Roman should have at least given Boetia back and some just did not care, to them it was between OSS Roman and the Turians.

The initial negations between the Council and OSS Roman had failed to gain the planet for the Turians, the OSS Roman had stood firm and would not relinquish control of the planet because of it's strategical location near Relay 314, from Boetia the passing of ships would be monitored and the Astral Gate to human space would be protected. However, to try and placate the Turians the OSS Roman had let them have an embassy on Boetia so they could see that the inhabitants were not being mistreated, as long they followed the law and acted like good citizens they would be treated like any other human citizen. This act went a long way to silence a lot of the arguments that supported the Turians. When they saw everything was fine most of the galactic community just let the issue drop. The Turian Hierarchy would never relinquish their rights to the planet, though they would no longer actively force the issue.

This did not mean that the animosity from the Turians would drop though, as a matter of fact, the Boetia issue was only just a part of it. Since the Humans expanded their borders the Turian Fleets that patrolled those borders were partially made redundant. The military of the individual human factions would see away any trouble, and being at the forefront, that trouble would mostly target the Humans. Even in the Terminus Systems where pirate raids and incursions were once the norm the number of direct attacks into Citadel space was lessening, the pirates and other undesirables focused on fighting each other and the militarised OSS's. All this undermined Turian military might and the title of "Defenders of the Citadel" were slowly slipping away from them. This did not sit well with the many Turians in the military, they saw humanity as upstarts and were furious that years of dedicated Turian service was being usurped. In an attempt to improve race relations the military of the different factions of Humanity conducted joint missions with the Turians, this seemed to satisfy them but there were still some that utterly resented Humanity.

On the 20th of March 2274 three Turians walked into a commercial area within the OSS Terra, they pulled out loaded weapons and opened fire on the mainly human crowd. In two minutes fifty three people were killed and eighty five wounded in varying degrees, ninety eight of those affected were human. The gunmen were captured by security drones and when they were questioned they only answered with declarations that they were fighters for the Turian cause. The next day the three were found dead in their cells and the autopsy results were inconclusive. They were the first wave of attacks that came from an organisation called the True Voice of the Turian People, or TVTP. They were extremists racists that believed Humanity was an inferior race and should be either slaves of the Turians or wiped out completely. This terrorist organisation murdered, slaughtered and tortured Humans and "human lovers" indiscriminately and it seemed their ultimate purpose was to wipe out or enslave the human race. The leader or leaders of the group were unknown. The Turian Hierarchy quickly denounced the TVTP as criminals that deserve only the most extreme of punishments to show that they were not linked to the extremists.

As a reaction to the group all factions of Humanity had agreed to form the Saint Protectors or the Saints. The organisations purpose was to "defend the innocent and deliver righteous justice upon the enemy". They were a counter to the TVTP and were made up of elite military personnel, their main objective was to root out the TVTP and destroy it entirely. They acted like the Spectres of the Council, though instead of alone they operated in teams, going out to every corner of space to hunt down and kill their enemy. At first it was an all human organisation but when the Council offered up their support they were accepted, initially the leaders of the Saints thought this was just a symbolic gesture and would not actually do anything useful but they were proven wrong. The TVTP also killed non-human races who the group considered human lovers or human supporters. This lead the Council to react to the threat and give support to the Saints. Asari commandos, Salarian STG's and Turian Spectres were all leased to the Saints or tasked with similar objectives as the Saints.

There were examples of good relations between humans and other races. For example the Quarians were great allies of the Humans, mainly the CISS. In exchange for building OSS's for them and becoming part of the CISS the Quarians would serve aboard the Stations and ships as engineers and technical experts. For the first time in years the Quarians as a people were accepted into a community and they were forever grateful. However at first it was not all good, in fact the Quarians nearly declared war on the Humans because they used AI's. The humans assured them that their AI's could not do what the Geth had done and rebel, it took a few years but the Quarians eventually tolerated, sometimes even accepted, the human AI's. From there relations between space-borne Humans and Quarians were always positive.

It was the year 2287 BCE and Humanity, though still a divided species, had established itself as one of the great powers of the known Universe. However, great powers faced great challenges...

–

–

_**Attica Beta, CoE 33rd Scout Group**_

The 33rd Scout Group was compromised of one main battleship and three light battleships, all fifth generation type three Titan Munitions. They were in the Attica Beta to investigate reported sightings from probes of an Unknown ship, one not matching anything in the databases of the CoE.

"What do you think it could be captain?" The XO of the main battleship Hydra, Allan Haries asked his captain.

Captain Fernando Chico shrugged "I dont know, but something is out there. Those probe scans weren't made up"

Allan nodded then turned to look at the holoscreen showing the outside of the ship. To the left was the Luchadore, below them was the Party Time and to the right was Fat Boy. The XO sighed, _those captains could have thought of better names._

The sensory officer on duty alerted them to readings on his holoscreen "Captain, there is an unknown object approaching at FTL speed directly in front of us. Looks like a ship sir"

Fernando leaned forward on his seat "FTL?"

The officer nodded. Then, in front of the group, the unknown vessel arrived. They were all surprised at what they were seeing. "What is that?" Allan asked in surprise. The ship was large, about two thousand meters long and resembled a squid.

"It's a giant metal Squid" Fernando said blandly.

Suddenly alarms rang from the sensory officers console "Sir it looks like it's powering weapons!"

Eyed widening Fernando was about to order battle stations when the unknown vessel fired. From the things metal tentacles red energy shot out, hitting all the ships in the scout group.

The Hydra shook violently as the red beams hit it. Alarms rang all over the ship and the crew held on to keep themselves steady. "Shields are down! The Luchadore and Party Time are destroyed, Fat Boy is heavily damaged and venting atmosphere!"

"Open a hyperspace window! Get us out of here!" Fernando yelled

Just as the Hydra was about to enter hyperspace two shots from the unknown ship impacted the hull and destroyed the ship. In fifteen seconds four ships had been destroyed and their wreckage floated about in the vastness of space. The only thing left alive was the unknown ship.

_They are not part of the plan_

–

–

_**Eden Prime Exodus Cluster**_

On the CoE colony Eden Prime a very important meeting was taking place. It's participants were Admiral David Anderson of the CoE, a holoscreen showing Lord General Lukas Alexander of the OSS Roman and the third participant was one of the leaders of the Saints, Sofia Yamashiro.

"Are you sure he's the right choice?" Anderson asked the armoured form of Sofia.

The woman nodded "He has experience in many fields"

"He does, five years standard boot camp, two years as an MCA pilot, four years in the army, mostly as some kind of field commander and two years as an IE agent." The Lord General added.

"Three years in the Saints as well. He lead the raid on Torfan"

Andersons eyes widened "The Hero of Torfan? He single-handedly destroyed three hundred pirate ships?"

The Lord General shook his head "No, not single-handedly. He works as a team leader, he motivates people, brings the best out of them"

Anderson looked impressed "Sounds like quite a man"

"He is" Sofia agreed "I worked with him, he helped me track down and eliminate Atarus"

"Resourceful then?" Anderson asked.

Sofia nodded "Yes"

The Admiral was very impressed, this man represented the best the whole of Humanity had to offer. "So, Shepard it is then?"

The other two nodded "Shepard it is"

–

–

_**Black Angels HQ Omega**_

The Black Angels mercenaries had, quite literary, taken Omega by storm. They were soldiers from three of the militarised OSS's in the Terminus Systems; OSS Krieg, OSS Yamato and the OSS Germania. The three OSS's recognised the importance of controlling the Omega station and had formed the Black Angels to take over the station. The Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns had lost a lot of ground to the Angels. The three prominent mercenary groups recruited tough people but they did not match the standard of the trained and experienced soldiers of the Black Angels.

When the Angels first arrived on Omega they were thirty thousand strong and lead by the Kriegan General Hildegard. Quickly they proved themselves as a power player in Omega, inflicting crushing defeats on the other three mercenary groups. They brought order and improved living standards to the areas they controlled, this lead many people and even some defectors to come to them and give them support. Now they were sixty thousand strong, their numbers bolstered by volunteers. These volunteers were trained as best as possible then sent in to guard areas the Black Angels held. Sometimes they would help in takeovers but these were mainly done by the soldiers.

Aria, the self crowned Queen and de facto ruler of Omega, quickly saw the advantage of being on the side of the Angels. However the three mercenary groups still held substantial territory and influence so she was careful not to openly show her support. She provided the Angels vital information and supplies. In exchange they secretly relinquished control of some of their territories to her and promised her, as long as she supported them, control over the entire Omega Station. It was a win-win situation, the three OSS's would get a strong and secure base of operations and Aria would gain power. The Asari matron was not stupid enough to squander her chance of gaining and holding on to power by turning on the Angels.

Captain Claus Ludin stood with six other captains in a briefing with their battlegroup commander. The Kriegan was six foot three and was clad in his Kreigan PCA, the helmet of which was designed to look like a skull. In all he was an intimidating figure, typical coming from a militarised OSS. In his hands was an Omar Armouries sixth generation type three electric assault rife with a chainsaw bayonet, the standard for all Kreigan soldiers. He was also equipped with the unique Kriegan stick grenades, explosive and concussive variants. Claus also had a heavy pistol as a sidearm.

"As you know the Blood Pack are making a heavy press for the Sotan district, the recruits there are holding their ground well. With some reinforcements they will tie down a lot of Blood Pack. You three will lead a flanking attack to crush the attackers and take over Otana district"

"Any details?" Claus asked

"Three hundred and eighty Blood Pack, two hundred Krogan and the rest Vorcha. There are five hundred recruits with another two hundred coming"

Claus saw one of the Captains, Musashi Yoshida, wince at the mention of the Krogan. He couldnt blame him, the Krogan had been the cause of many deaths and nightmares for the Black Angels.

"You'll partner up and attack in two squads, Ludin and Yoshida will take the left flank, Kojiro and Vormann the right, and Jansen and Riegel will close the trap at their backs"

The assembled Captains showed their understanding of their tasks and with a "good luck" they were dismissed. They met up with and briefed their squad then boarded six gunships that would take them to the battle.

* * *

AN:

Well, I've chosen my path. The third option it is. Hopefully this chapter is clear and well made because I confused myself making it. If you have thoughts of opinions please review and tell me.

**(1)** I've resized the number of inhabitants in the OSS's. OSS Roman now has 1.5 Million because 1 billion was simply too much. The Citadel has 13.2 Million people and Omega has 7.8 Million people (From the Mass Effect Wiki). Having a human space station that can fit 1 Billion people is just stupid I realised.

The Wealthy Barber: Thanks for the review and idea but the persona of The Illusive Man and the organisation Cerberus does not exist here. Cerberus existed in game to make humanity strong and dominant, here they already are. It's the Turians who have their own variant of Cerberus.


	12. Welcome the Normandy and the Krogan!

Disclaimer: I own...something

Things, I think their acronyms:

**OSS:** Orbital Space Statios

**CISS: **Coalition of Independent Space Stations**  
**

**MCA: **Mobile Combat Armour

**PCA:** Personal Combat Armour

**UCM: **United Cities of Mars

**IFV:** Infantry Fighting Vehicle

**UT: **Universal Time

**CoE: **Coalition of Earth

**ARS:** Advanced Reaction Suit

**TVTP: **True voice of the Turian People

**BACS: **Battlefield Adaptive Combat System

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

* * *

_**CoE colony Eden Prime**_

Eden Prime was nicknamed a "second Earth" due to the similarity of the planet to Earth and the level of development the CoE put into it. It was a lush garden world producing billions of tons of food every Universal Year. The CoE used advanced "green" farming methods and technologies to ensure that Eden Prime would continue it's service for countless years to come. It held a population of five million people, a majority of them human but there were others who called Eden Prime home. There were three large cities, four smaller cities and numerous towns across the planet. Eden Prime was also a commercial centre and served as the CoE home base in the Attican Traverse, housing the CoE's 17th , 20th and 30th Fleet as well as one million soldiers and their equipment. Unofficially this military presence was known as the Guardians of Eden.

Currently Commander Morgan Shepard, a renown hero of humanity, was taking a open air train to one of the military spaceports to meet with the Admiral of the collective Fleets of Eden Prime. Leaning on the railing and letting the wind blow through his short cropped hair he thought about why he and his team had been called here, he was interrupted however by one of his team members.

"So Commander, why do you think we've been called here?"

He turned to face the speaker, a space borne human Sam Gideon. Sam was facing away from the Commander, looking at the looming spaceport with a cigarette in his hand. The man was an avid smoker.

"I have no idea but Saint Command said it's crucial"

"Must be something big, you dont get to meet Admirals every day"

This time it was another team member that spoke, Robert Salvador. The martian was sat on a bench holding a small holoprojector in his hand, the projection showing a schematic for an MCA.

"No, you dont" Shepard agreed "What do you think Iana?" The Commander asked the only Asari in his team.

The purple skinned Asari Commando was slacking on a bench, head turned to the side as she watched the sights that they passed by. She gave a quick shrug "I have no idea"

The Commander heard a tune being whistled and looked at the final member of his five man team, Alex Yun. The young man was leaning forward and holding on to the railing while whistling, eyes closed and apparently enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing into his face.

_He probably does, he's a Jumper after all_ Morgan thought to himself.

They were all part of the Saint Guardians, an organisation dedicated to hunting down the TVTP and protecting the people from the extremist organisation.

"We're here" Morgan announced as the train made a stop. Him and his team exited the train and were met by a soldier who lead them to where they would be meeting the Admiral.

–

–

_**Sotana district, Omega**_

Claus dived back into the cover of the wall as a missile exploded in front of him, sending bits of the flooring flying into his armour. One of his soldiers got the launcher holding Vorcha in his sights and let loose a controlled burst of fire, the rounds tore through the Vorcha's tough skin and into it's jaw and neck, killing it in a spray of blood. A wild spray of return fire made the soldier duck back into cover.

Through the dulled sound of gunfire Claus heard a yell of "Krogan!" The soldier who spotted the beasts quickly marked them on the HUD.

Cursing Claus took hold of a stick grenade and spotted the group of four Krogan advancing on their position, cursing again he took hold of another grenade. He primed the grenades and threw them at the Krogan who tried to jump or dive out of the way. The grenades exploded but three of the Krogan got back up and continued their advance, now even more angered and determined. Claus growled in frustration, cursing the natural Krogan vitality.

"Focus fire on the Krogan!" Claus ordered his squad as he took aim and fired. The rounds impacted against the Krogans kinetic barriers, doing little to slow the beasts advance.

Luckily one of the Krogan went down under a hail of fire but this seemed to only enrage the other two who bellowed out war cries and charged towards the ones who killed their comrades. As the two beasts closed the distance, shotguns firing all the way, Claus revved up his chainsaw bayonet and with a amplified yell of "KRIEG!" lunged for the lead Krogan when it was in range. The larger alien bated the weapon away and sent a cracking punch to Claus's head. The Kriegan was knocked to the side but let his momentum carry him into a roll to the Krogans side, he lunged again and this time the Krogan could not bat it away in time and the monomolecular teeth quickly bit and chewed through the Krogans armour and into the tough flesh underneath. The Krogan bellowed in anger or pain and used it's shotgun to smack Claus away.

Claus was jarred by the impact but thankfully his helmet absorbed most of the force, though he was still pushed back. He brought his rifle to bear on the Krogan but the Krogan was faster and charged into him, knocking him off his feet and sending him back, again his armour absorbed most of the force. As the Krogan was about to fire two of Claus's soldiers plunged their bayonets into the creature from behind. The Krogan fell forward but was still alive and tried to get back up, however it's struggle was ended when Claus surged forward and jammed his bayonet into the Krogans hump and sawed through armour, flesh and bone. The whining teeth sprayed blood and bits as the Claus forced the vicious weapon to split open the Krogans body from hump to head.

The Kriegan captain looked around to see that the other Krogan was dead, taken down by a combination of shotgun and bayonet.

"The vermin run!" A soldier from captain Yoshida's squad pointed out to them.

With their Krogan overseers killed the rest of the Vorcha lost their will to fight and retreated, some being shot down. Claus and everybody else knew though that they would be fighting them again very soon.

"No time to rest, keep up the advance!"

His soldiers obeyed and marched on to kill more of the enemy.

–

–

_**Nautica spaceport, Eden Prime**_

Shepard and his team finally entered the conference room inside the military HQ of the spaceport. They were greeted by the Admiral, David Anderson. However they were surprised when they saw that there were two others, at least the hologram of them, in the room. Both Morgan knew, the OSS Roman's Lord General Lukas Alexander and one of the leading figures of the Saint Guardians Sofia Yamashiro.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat"

Though the team were confused they held back their questions and took their seats around the conference table.

The Lord General took the lead "I wont beat around the bush, you're here because your team has been chosen for a special mission, to hunt down Saren Arterius, the head of the TVTP"

Shock and silence. It was shock and silence that dominated the room. The entire team could not comprehend what they had just been told, the three leading figures in the room let it sink in. Finally, Morgan found his voice, though he spoke in a shocked whisper.

"What?"

It was the hologram of Sofia that addressed him "After years of work we have found out that Saren is the leader of the TVTP, we have also managed to isolate his location to somewhere in the Attican Traverse, beyond the human controlled space"

"Saren?" It was Iana that spoke "One of the best Council Spectres to ever exist? He is the leader of the TVTP?" Her voice and expression made it clear she was having a hard time believing it.

"Yes" Sofia simply said.

"Have the Council been notified? We need to organise search and detain missions..." Morgan went off in what his team knew as "Commander mode" but he was stopped by the Admiral.

"We have told the Council and showed them the evidence, when they called for Saren he didnt answer. They sent C-Sec to search his house and Spectres to his known hangouts, he has completely disappeared from Citadel space"

Morgan nodded in understanding "But why are we being sent to hunt him down on our own? Shouldn't the entire Saints and Fleet and everybody else be scouring the Traverse?"

"Because that would alert him and force him to act, a cornered animal will fight harder and all that and we cant predict what he is capable of" Luke answered him.

"But one team, provided with the best the Galaxy has to offer, can be like a scalpel to their heart and take out Saren. Other teams will be hunting other prominent TVTP members"

Shepard's team now fully let the situation sink in. It would be them that would bring down Saren. The responsibility of the task nearly crushed them but they knew in their hearts that with their Commander they could pull it off.

"What do we need to do?" Morgans voice was filled with strength and determination, it bolstered and lifted his teams spirit and assured the three most prominent people in the room that they had made the right choice.

"Follow me"

–

–

_**Hangar 1, Nautica Spaceport**_

It was amazing. It was a marvel and it nearly gave Morgan a heart attack when he saw it. The Admiral had lead them to the hangar bay and showed them the ship they would be using.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Normandy" Anderson gestured at the ship which was being held by docking clamps.

"This ship is the brainchild of professor Fiona Jarnefeldt"

Robert's and Sam's eyes widened, both recognising the name "The League's top professor? She made this?" Robert's voice held awe and amazement.

Anderson nodded, smiling slightly at the faces of the two as they took in the sight of the Normandy "The League asked her if it was possible to make a ship that combined the speed and flexibility of a frigate with the fire-power of a main battleship. With help, this is what she came up with"

"Amazing..." Sam expressed in words what everyone else was feeling.

Anderson however still had more to tell. He walked around the ship, pointing out details and explaining them. He first lead them to the engines at the back "The Normandy is twice as fast as most frigates, the result of combining mass effect fields and new ionic propulsion drives"

Leading them around the ship to it's left side Anderson pointed to the armour plating "The armour is made with new composite materials developed with the help of the Asari and can withstand extremes of heat, pressure and direct energy. The shielding is strong enough to withstand a few shots from a main battleship but I wouldn't suggest doing so, better to keep your speed as your main protection"

Now, Anderson took them to the front of the ship where they could see the armaments "It's armed with two dual rail cannons, two torpedo tubes loaded with twenty four plasma torpedoes and the main gun is a hadron cannon, a real ship buster"

"A hadron canon? That thing's still in the experimental stages!" Sam shouted in surprise. His expression changed from awe to outright worship, he even had trouble keeping his mouth closed. Robert was fairing slightly better, at least he wasn't drooling.

"Mostly it still is, this is the first time it's been mounted on a ship, simulations and tests show it works though" Anderson explained to them.

The Admiral let the team admire the ship from the outside for a while more before he took them to the entrance of the ship. When the door opened and the team stepped inside they were met by the crew of the Normandy, all of them stood to attention and saluted. The Admiral and the team walked through the prow of the ship, admiring the stylish interior and acknowledging the saluting crew they passed. What looked like the senior staff was there to welcome them when they reached the CIC, or the bridge as it was known to humans.

A young man stepped forward, a young man Commander Morgan knew very well

"Joker?"

His old friend smiled and shook his hand "Good to see you again Sheps and welcome to the Normandy, which I pilot by the way" The smugness in his voice was hard to miss.

Morgan rolled his eyes and laughed, he had almost missed Jokers attitude. Next to welcome him was the Chief Medical Officer Dr Chakwas "Welcome commander, it's a pleasure to meet you"

Morgan shook her hand "The pleasure is all mine ma'am"

The older woman laughed and motioned for an Asari to come up "This is Mara Krill, my apprentice"

Mara offered her left arm, which Marcus noted had a lighter skin tone and looked more solid than the rest of her body. When he shook her hand he felt a deceptively strong grip for her frame and came to one conclusion, _Bionic limb._

Morgan then shook hands with the Chief Engineer Tristain Adams and his apprentice, a Quarian, who introduced herself as Tali'Zorah nar Yana. The last two senior staff members greeted the Commander, the Executive Officer Miranda Lawson and the Normandy's therapist and Morgans personal assistant Kelly Chambers.

"It's great to meet you all" Morgan addressed the assembled officers.

"Dont get settled in yet Commander, there is still some you have to see" Anderson lead them away from the CIC and they took the grav lift down to the lower levels of the Normandy. There they made their way past the hangar where they could see one IFV and two shuttles, to the armoury. They were greeted by the Security Officer, surprisingly a Turian, who introduced himself as Garrus Vakarian. On a metal table in front of the Turian lay several objects that were shaped like a gun handle.

Sam, noticing the objects, gasped "Holy shit"

The rest of his team looked between him and the objects in confusion.

"Care to inform us?" Morgan asked the gaping man.

"These" Anderson gestured to the objects "Are the new BACS, Battlefield Adaptive Combat System, and from now on they will be your best friends"

Sam picked up one and examined it and soon the rest of the team followed.

"What does it do?" To Iana these objects looked more like pieces of a weapon than an actual weapon itself.

"Garrus, give them a demonstration" Anderson nodded to the Turian.

Garrus picked up one of the BACS, pulled a assault rifle out of it's holder and activated the device on the weapon. A green light came out of the device, going over the weapon as if it was scanning it and when it was finished Garrus held the device up and activated a switch of some kind. To the surprise of the team a silvery liquid metal substance came out of the device and began to form the scanned assault rifle. When it was done Garrus held an exact replica of the weapon he pulled out.

The Turian smirked at the shocked faces of the team "The device uses advanced scanning and nanotechnology" He explained "It's memory can hold up to three weapon designs and it can scan ANY weapon and replicate it, though you'll have to get the ammo yourself"

"Sweet" Alex simply stated with a wide smile on his face, much like that of a child on Christmas day. The other members of his team simply nodded in agreement.

Anderson turned to Morgan, a serious look on his face "Shepard, everything in this ship, from every bolt and screw to the crew and these devices, are the best we can give you. The best the Galaxy can give you. You're mission is of the utmost importance, your doing this not only for humanity but for every sentient being that calls this Galaxy home. Saren must be stopped"

Morgan saluted the Admiral "Saren WILL be stopped, you can count on my team sir"

Anderson smiled, proud of the Commanders dedication "Im sure I can"

–

–

_**Sotana district, Omega**_

Claus dragged an injured soldier behind a solid barrier, the man had been hit by several rounds to his chest and shoulder. With medical attention he would most likely survive since the armour and the man's ARS protected him. A medic came rushing in and Claus let her tend the wounded man while he went back into the fight.

Bullets and the occasional missile came at them from the Vorcha who had taken positions inside buildings, fortunately the sound of impact was dulled out by his helmet, letting him concentrate on the battle. Claus trained his rifle on a Vorcha who had a missile launcher and fired short, controlled bursts. The rounds hit home and brought the insect like alien down. Seeing another marked target on his HUD Claus aimed and let out another burst, this time until his ammo count turned zero. The Vorcha's chest and neck sprayed blood as it died.

The Kriegan ejected the used cooling clip and loaded another one, his ammo count turning thirty six when he finished.

"Ludin, we need backup. There are too many Krogan!" Claus's partner Captain Yoshida called out to him.

Growling in frustration Claus rounded up three soldiers and told the rest to hold their ground. He lead the way towards where Yoshida's squad was being pushed back by a dozen Krogan warriors. Arriving on the left side of the Krogan attackers Claus ordered his soldiers to focus their fire on one Krogan at a time. Three Krogan were gunned down before the rest realised they were being attacked. The warriors split their remaining forces and four went after Claus and his squad.

Rounds impacting against their shields the four man squad dived into cover. One primed and threw a grenade which landed in front of the Krogan and exploded, forcing them back but not seriously wounding them. The warriors roared then charged at them, intent on utterly destroying their enemy.

"Rev 'em up!" Claus ordered his soldiers as he activated his bayonet. The whirring of chainsaws could be heard even through Claus's helmet.

Claus jumped out of cover, took several strides to meet his foe and lunged with his bayonet. The Krogan pulled it's body back but the fierce weapon was plunged into it's stomach. Claus pushed it through and lifted his rifle to rip the Krogan in half, the teeth shredded and ripped the Krogans strong body and when the head was split open Claus drew his weapon back.

Before he could react a Krogan swung it's shotgun at him and Claus was sent into a forward roll. Thankfully the Krogan was distracted by one of Claus's soldiers thrusting their bayonet into it's back, letting the Captain get back up and fire upon the Krogan. It's barrier flickered but soon gave out and Claus did not let go of the trigger until the large alien was sprayed with rounds. The beast went down and the soldier withdrew his bayonet from the body. The other Krogan were taken down but one of his soldiers had his arm bent at an unnatural angle, the man's PCA injected him with stimulants to dull the pain as one of Yoshida' medics came to his aid.

"Thank you friend, now let us finish this" His fellow Captains voice rang in his ears.

Claus, with the other two soldiers who he picked, made their way back to their comrades. The enemies resistance had died down and quickly Claus and his troops were pushing the last of the Vorcha and Krogan into a corner, the other squads doing the same. The battle for Sotana district had been won and the victors would take the neighbouring Otana district as their prize.

* * *

AN:

This chapter has been written while I was reading writing advice, I seriusley do hope it helped. Please review and tell me what you think.

anon: Thank you!

The Wealthy Barber: The Illusive Man wont really be the same kind of person we know in the game. His attitudes and behaviours just wont make him the Illusive Man. And yes ive planned for the AI.

On a side note: I recieved my first flame, surprisingly it does not bother me but ive actually asked him/her why they think that this story is a pile of crap, still hasnt replied though...


End file.
